I Kissed a Boy
by Lioness235
Summary: "And I li-" Wait, what? No! Alfred had been at the clubs when he suddenly found himself kissing a stranger. Furious, Alfred decided to put the whole mess behind him, but that gets difficult when all his friends find out. It gets worse still when it turns out that man is one of the new exchange students at his University. Alfred has since decided life hates him. Human!AU (USUK/UKUS)
1. Chapter 1

**So this is based on Cobra Starship's "I Kissed a Boy" (which I do not own). If you listen to the song it's from England's perspective. ****This is what happens when you listen to songs while thinking about Punk!England.**

**Urgh. This was also my first time writing anything resembling a make-out scene sooo... heh... Forgive me. Also note now that this is USUK so obviously it's yaoi. (Though nothing bad.)**

***I do not own Hetalia***

**(Note- Mei is Taiwan)**

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><p>Alfred shot the young lady in front of him a winning smile and struck a pose again. The petite Asian woman giggled behind her hand.<p>

Alfred grinned and leaned an arm on the bar beside him. He _seriously _needed to thank Kiku for hooking him up after he got home. "Sure I can't buy you anything?" He asked.

"No, Alfred-kun." She smiled pleasantly. "I don't really drink much. I find it clouds the mind a bit too much for my liking. You never know what you'll do or say while intoxicated."

"You sure it has nothing to do with the all the stuff you accidentally told Kiku and Toris last time we all went out, Mei?" Alfred laughed as the usually calm woman in front of him blushed furiously and waved her hands in an adorably frantic way.

"Would you stop with it already okay? It's not that odd from where I come from..." She covered her face with her hands. (More like tried her best to disappear.) "It's... Shut up..." She mumbled finally into her sleeves. "Besides Kiku's worse."

Alfred chuckled again. He loved taunting the young Taiwanese girl. Yup, _definitely _needed to thank Kiku, especially after Kiku had complained about Alfred hitting on his cousin.

"It's okay. Kiku probably was the one to corrupt you anyway." He took another sip of his drink and smiled. "I share a room with him back at the dorms remember?" He gave a mock shudder. "The things I've seen." He said as he threw a hand to his face, acting faint.

Mei finally looked up and gave him a reluctant smile again. "I'm not as bad as Kiku I swear."

Alfred quirked a brow. "You sure, because I mean some of the crap you said was pretty-"

Mei laughed it off this time as she smacked Alfred playfully. "Maybe you should have a talk with Elizabeta when you get home. Seriously, you're making fun of me but your friends are much weirder!"

Alfred grimaced. "Well Kiku, Elizabeta and Francis aside my friends are just fine thank you."

"Reaally?" She smirked. "They're all so odd, Alfred. I mean I can speak for my cousin myself but your little University has the oddest cast I've ever seen."

Alfred pouted at this, receiving the expected sigh from Mei. He couldn't keep it up and quickly broke into a smile again. She really was adorable. Her petite frame was perched on a bar stool, her legs primly crossed at the ankle. She wore a long-sleeved pink blouse and a black pencil skirt. She even had a real lotus flower tucked behind her ear, holding some of her long black hair back.

Her eyes were a deep chocolate brown that sparkled as she giggled quietly again. (And not in a bad way, she was in no way stuck up or rude, she was simply shy in a way that was like, totally adorable.)

"Okay maybe my friends are weird." He said. "Am I?" At this Alfred shot her a puppy-dog look.

She looked at him for not even a split second before replying, "Yes." in a surprisingly serious tone. Alfred baulked and her eyes immediately crinkled in amusement. "But in a good way." She finished.

Alfred looked up from the pouting look he had been giving the floor to look at Mei again. "Does that mean the hero gets an A++ for effort?" He gave her a thumbs up as he turned up the charm until he practically sparkled.

Mei put on a evil grin and replied, "Maybe... if you go buy me a drink. A non-alcoholic one; we want to focus on how _you're _weird, not on what I might say to prove _I'm _weird." She pointed over to the other side of the club. "They were selling smoothies over there, you should get me one."

Alfred winked at her as he put his drink down and left as Mei called out, "Even your clubs are weird here in America aren't they? Really, smoothies?"

Alfred grinned dumbly as he walked over to the bar. He stopped short as he bumped into someone.

"Ah, sorry!" He said as he stumbled back. The man looked up at him with piercing red eyes that gave Alfred a fright. His silver hair reflected the colors that were bouncing around in the air, but the oil-like patterns were interrupted by a bright splotch of yellow planted at a slight tilt on the man's head. Alfred squinted at the spot in confusion. He hadn't had _that _much to drink had he? He recognized that he might have been a little tipsy, but his thought processes had _seemed _fine and he'd walked perfectly straight and stably over until he had bumped into the man who appeared to be an albino. However, the fact that he was seeing bright yellow birds in the middle of a city club made him really reconsider how much he had drank. It _had _only been two shots right?

"No problem pal." The man grinned as he slapped Alfred on the back. "It happens."

Alfred then decided that maybe this man was more drunk than him, even if he was seeing questionable things. The albino then wobbled off and promptly fell onto a brunette man that Alfred assumed was his friend. "Toni! When you'd get here?" He heard the man slur before he shrugged and turned back to get the smoothies.

He purchased a strawberry smoothie before making his way back to Mei. His thoughts trailed off about how he could never believe how lucky he got sometimes. He always seemed to go on dates with the nicest, prettiest, most amazing girls around. Sure maybe the past few hadn't ended up as anything, but the 'break-ups' hadn't been terrible at all either. After all, he had been agreement with the splits.

He frowned as he reached the half-way point back to his seat, seeing no albino to bump into this time. It wasn't as if he hated any of the girls or anything, (except that Natalia chick, she had been terrifying) it just always seemed like their relationships hadn't been going anywhere. Believe it or not (and you better believe it) Alfred was very popular with the ladies. He won most girls over with his pretty smile and sweet personality, but in the end he always just seemed to be friend-zoned. (Even if he accepted and agreed with it, Alfred wondered if he was just really bad at relationships... No, never, he was awesome.) In fact he still met up with his past three girlfriends for various club activities and would joke around with them like nothing happened. Even though he was happy with just being friends, he worried briefly why his relationships with girls always failed.

He finally reached the bar and caught Mei's gaze from down the counter. Well things were going well enough with Mei so far, so he decided to disregard the troublesome thoughts. She gave him a smile as he began moving his way down the long distance to the other end of the bar.

He stopped as he felt someone tap on his shoulder. He wondered who it could be briefly, it must have been someone he didn't know as he knew his friends hadn't been planing on coming tonight, before turning- and suddenly finding his face awfully close to someone else.

He started to back away and apologize before suddenly a hand grabbed a hold of his collar and yanked him down.

Alfred's eyes widened in astonishment as his face collided with the stranger's. He stiffened. _What? _His mind muddled through the cloud that had immediately formed over it.

Before he knew it, the man (because it was definitely a man) was full on making out with him, pushing him up against the bar behind him while they locked lips. One of his hands grasping the fabric collar of Alfred's shirt and another resting on the bar beside Alfred. Alfred was too shocked to do anything other than stand there.

_Dude push him off. _The sane part of his brain told him, however the rest of it seemed to be _way _too focused on the man who was pressed up against him and refused to acknowledge the thought. Obviously the man had mistaken him for someone else, if Alfred didn't do something then-

Alfred's train of thought immediately shattered into a million pieces as the man bit at his lower lip. He felt his brain short-circuit and any attempts to make sense of the situation melted away. He tried again to force a coherent thought to form. He should _do_ something- _do_... do what again?

He felt the man's tongue trail slowly along the corner of his mouth, almost teasingly. It was at that point that he was officially broken. His brain was beyond even forming words at this point, and he had a terrible feeling that he if this kept up for much longer he would most definitely melt into a puddle at this man's feet. He wasn't even sure how much time had passed, it must've been only a few seconds but he wasn't sure, the world had seemed to dim around him.

He was relieved beyond all reason when the man pulled back and he was able to grasp frantically at the ends of his quickly retreating sanity. The man stepped back slightly, removing his hand from where it had been holding the fabric of Alfred's (now wrinkled) collar. His emerald eyes (_damn_ they were a shocking shade of green) glinted almost evilly at Alfred as he licked his lips.

_Well say something dude! _His mind seemingly wailed at him. Finally, the wires in his brain seemed to spark and fuse back together. "Wha- What the hell dude!?" He finally choked out, regaining control of his voice.

The man only smirked. "Sorry about that chap." He replied in a crisp English accent. His gaze lingered on Alfred only a moment longer before his eyes darted to the stares that they had been receiving, many from gaping young women. His eyelids lowered into a leer and his grin grew wider, taking in the audience they had apparently gathered.

Alfred just stared aghast as the man started walking away, trailing a hand (the same one that had been resting against the counter on the opposite side of Alfred) across Alfred's arm before shooting one last smirk over his shoulder at him. Alfred finally gained control over his limbs as he prepared to storm after the man and demand an explanation. He was only able to take a single step before his path was blocked by none other than the albino from earlier.

"Hey move it!" Alfred fumed but the man just shifted to continue to block Alfred's path as he tried to move around him.

"Sorry dude." He snickered, seeming a lot less drunk than Alfred had seen him last. "But you look like you're going to sock one to my pal, and I can't let that happen." Alfred glared at the man, resigning himself to looking over the man's shoulder instead. He then saw that the blond-haired green-eyed man had walked over to Mei.

Alfred paled as he realized Mei had seen the whole spectacle, it was obvious from the way she hid her astonished face behind a hand. And to top it off, the British man was talking to her, bowing slightly and holding out a hand. Alfred nearly blew a fuse when he saw him place a kiss on her hand as Mei giggled.

"What the-" He turned to question the albino but found only a knowing smirk on his face and got a snicker. Alfred had balled his hands at his side and sent all his rage at the pale man with a simple look.

"Maybe you should calm down dude." The man began, face becoming passive- grin leaving- as he raised an eyebrow. "He's just a bit-" but Alfred was beyond calm now. He turned and stomped out the door, ignoring the obvious stares he could feel on his back. He heard a faint "dude wait!" behind him as the albino tried to call him back, but he was utterly _done_. He let out a stream of curses as he realized his face was growing red. He burst out the door and reasoned he could pass the blame of it on the heat of the club. (After all it was _not _because he was blushing.)

He started storming down the street towards home and realized he was still holding the strawberry smoothie in his left hand. He grimaced and dropped it in the nearest trash can before walking stiffly to the dorms. _Stupid smoothie._ He thought sourly.

He had marched halfway back to the dorms before his head finally cleared a bit. He stopped and rubbed at the back of his head in embarrassment. He had over-reacted (even if he _had _totally had the right to) and was feeling childish now. He winced as he realized he'd ditched Mei in the middle of their date, even leaving her with the stupid British man. He reached into his back pocket and hit 3 on speed-dial. He leaned back on a nearby wall and waited as it rang.

"Alfred?" A voice answered back. "What is it?" Alfred made a face at the heavily implied _'Do you know what time it is? Some of us have classes tomorrow even if you don't' _that only close friends would be able to pick out of the restrained, polite tone the reserved man used.

"Hey, could you give Mei a text for me?" He asked, chuckling nervously, "I kind of-"

"I have already heard Alfred." The voice cut him off. "Mei actually texted me telling me you left."

"Oh... she did..." Alfred mumbled. Shuffling his feet, she stared pointedly at the ground. Man he _was _terrible wasn't he, leaving a nice girl like Mei in the middle of their 'date'.

"Yes, but she didn't seem mad." The man sighed finally. Alfred could hear a faint rustling and the distinct click of a lamp flicking on. "She seemed more concerned about you."

"Oh really?" Alfred asked. He was relieved, as he had been really worried that Mei would hate him now. Especially after that... show... and his ditching of her afterwards.

"Yes, really." The man sighed. "Are you coming home Alfred?" Alfred blinked, realizing he had unconsciously already started walking back to the dorms.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks Kiku." Alfred smiled. "What's up anyway?"

There was a faint groan on the other side of the line. "Alfred it is the middle of the night, I have a test tomorrow, and you are interrupting my sleep. If you want to talk to me as you walk home you can talk about why you left my cousin alone. She can take care of her self, she is a black-belt after all, but it was rather rude."

Alfred had no reply to that. He couldn't tell Kiku the real reason, that would be embarrassing. (Not that he cared. He was totally not worked up about it at all. There was no reason to be worked up. It's not like he was totally pissed at himself for it. Yup. He didn't care at all.) "Um..." He tittered for a minute, avoiding answering.

This grabbed the Japanese man's attention as he sat up in his bed. He had woken up to his phone blaring "American Idiot". (It was remnant of a bet Alfred and him had made a while ago. Alfred had won and forced Kiku to change his ring-tone for Alfred to something specifically American related, Kiku had picked said song just to spite Alfred. The man really was devious sometimes.) It was easy to say Kiku had not been amused when reading the time on the clock, 12:45 am, and picking up the phone. His sleep had just been interrupted by a text from Mei earlier, and Kiku was annoyed to say the least. (Or most, depending on how well you could read Kiku's expressions.)

Kiku was intrigued now. Nothing made Alfred F. Jones stutter. Unlike himself, Alfred was never afraid to say loud, and often embarrassing, things in public and laugh it off equally as loudly. In fact, whenever Alfred was embarrassed, which was rare to say the least, he just laughed at the offender, leaving Kiku, who was always embarrassed, face-palming and taking the majority (if not all) the shame for Alfred. Really, the things that man did shocked him sometimes.

"Is something wrong Alfred?" Kiku asked, tilting his head back. Kiku was _very _good at reading expressions and tones, unlike Alfred who couldn't even seem to read the atmosphere, and he already knew the answer. He just wanted to see how Alfred would react.

The reaction was spectacular. "What? No! No, I'm fine! Nothing wrong at all!" Alfred yelped. Kiku was astonished. He thought back to the text Mei had sent him. What had it said exactly again? He had pretty much stopped reading it after the "Alfred left", and had texted a brief "Sorry" before he had flopped face-down back into his blankets. He strained his mind, thinking. It had said something about her being concerned and... amused had it said? He couldn't quite remember.

"Alfred if you want to tell me something..." He trailed off, slyly egging the American on. He was quite good at being innocently devious.

"I said it was nothing!" Alfred cried. At this point he was in front of the dorms but had stopped short. Not wanting to face Kiku.

"... Alfred..." Kiku pushed.

"GOODBYE." Alfred snapped as he hit the 'End Call' button and fumed for a bit. It didn't help that apparently his mind was _still_ a treacherous asshole, replaying the scene from the bar over and over despite Alfred's protests. He cursed himself, why the hell was he still so focused on it? And _why _the _hell _had he done nothing to protest it at the time. It must have been a mix of the alcohol and the shock, that was it.

He frowned as he pushed open the gates to the dorms and walked slowly up to his room he shared with Kiku. He was still scowling as he walked down the hallway. _And another thing. _He thought. It had been a _dude. _Not that Alfred was homophobic or anything, (he had to deal with Francis hitting on guys all the time, but that was more an 'anything that moves' kind of situation anyway, so it didn't really count) but he _was _straight after all, and some other dude had just up and kissed him... more like assaulted him actually.

His mind, traitorous asshole it was, flickered briefly to the worries he had had earlier that same night. Why _did _he always have such bad luck with girlfriends? What if-

_NOPE. _Alfred quickly decapitated that train of thought. It was at that point he had reached the door and slammed it open, receiving a glare from Kiku in the process. He immediately chuckled nervously and grinned apologetically as he softly closed the door behind him. _Don't need to take the anger out on the room. _He thought.

"Sorry bro." He said before grabbing spare clothes and running off to the bathroom before Kiku could question him. The Japanese man just sighed before face-planting back into the sheets of his bed.

He heard, a few minutes later, when Alfred came back. He laid down and flicked off the lights leaving the room in beautiful darkness once again. Kiku pondered briefly if he should ask Alfred about what had happened again, but decided against it.

It was too late to deal with Alfred anyway, and he had a test in... he glanced at the clock that brightly read 1:00. _Six hours. _Kiku then promptly decided to yell at Alfred later as he drifted off to sleep.

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><p><strong>So... I'll probably continue this, just so I can write flustered, embarrassed Alfred. (Seeing as my other Al is the exact opposite.) Plus... I mean come-on... Punk!England. And silly Al, you can't escape the yaoi no matter how "straight" you are.<strong>

**Comments much loved! Please let me know what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh my. So many followers in such a short time with only one chapter. -Poker face-**

**You guys must like Alfred being embarrassed or Arthur being a jerk because that's all that was in the last chapter. XD Well that and Kiku debating whether or not to murder Al...**

**Eh- well enjoy Al being thrown to the wolves I guess. .**

**Also, I was listening to a Nightcore version of Glee's version of Heart Breaker by Marina and The Diamonds (which I do not own... duh) while writing this. It fits pretty nice for this... God Arthur's a jerk. XD It's okay- he'll get better! ...after he gets worse.**

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><p>Kiku woke up in the morning feeling no more refreshed than he had last night. He shot Alfred's sleeping form a glare before standing up and getting ready for class.<p>

Alfred shifted, mumbling as he heard the door close. He had a small headache from the night before, and was still half asleep. He threw a hand over towards his nightstand and managed to knock over not only one, but two empty soda cans before he finally got a hold of his glasses.

He wrinkled his nose before tossing the offending glasses on his face and looking at the clock.

A light blue 7:15 caught his eye. He groaned and stretched. He didn't have classes today, but he'd promised Francis and Toris that he'd meet up with them at 8.

He stared at the ceiling for a good two minutes before deciding that another ten minutes of sleep couldn't hurt anybody. As soon as the thought passed through his head, he found himself drifting off into sleep once more, glasses still crookedly placed on his face.

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><p>Alfred was jolted awake by a pounding on his door. He sat up quickly and looked over at the clock. 8:30. <em>Well crap.<em>

"Alfred. Alfreeed." A voice sang from the other side of the door. "_Mon ami!_ You're not dead in there are you? I knew Kiku would snap one day."

Alfred just moaned. "Shut up Francis." He rubbed his eyes, pushing his glasses up to rest on the top of his head. He stood up and wobbled over to the door, yanking it open to reveal two men standing in the hallway.

"Is that anyway to talk to someone you stood up?" Francis sniffed, walking into the room. A small, timid looking brunette boy followed in after him, shooting Alfred an apologetic smile.

Alfred scoffed. "Yeah, yeah whatever. Sorry, I had a bad night." He grabbed a pair of jeans and walked over to the bathroom. "Make yourselves at home I guess."

He came back a few minutes later, wearing a T-shirt with a loud, large Captain America symbol on the chest along with faded blue jeans. He took in Francis sprawled over his bed in his lavender button up shirt and black khakis. Rolling his eyes, he took a seat on one of the plush chairs placed in the center of the large room.

"What's up?" Alfred asked, pointedly directing his question at Toris- you could never expect a reasonable answer from Francis. The man was currently in the process of what looked like trying to discover if a human being could disappear from a room by sheer force of will.

"Oh- well you didn't show up so we came to check on you." Toris said, smiling now that Alfred was back and he wasn't left alone to make conversation with Francis. They were all friends, but Francis always made Toris uncomfortable.

"_Oui!_" Francis called, sitting up. "Kiku said you went out last night so we came to make sure you didn't manage to knock yourself out."

"Yeah." Alfred said, rubbing his temples. "No big deal."

"How'd the date go?" Asked Toris. Alfred stiffened at this, not wanting to answer.

"Not all that great man." Alfred chuckled nervously. He cursed himself again. _Play it cool. _

Francis and Toris exchanged a look. Little did Alfred know, they had talked to Kiku before coming for Alfred. After Alfred had failed to show up to their meeting, they had hunted down Kiku to ask where Alfred was. Kiku had shrugged and said probably still in the dorms. However, after that a sly smile had crossed his face as he had gestured for them to come closer. He told them quickly that Alfred had been acting weird last night. Not just the usual 'had a little too much to drink and is a bit too giggly' weird either, but a full on very un-Alfred like weird.

Toris had shrugged it off, saying Alfred had the right to be weird every once in a while- and who were they to judge. He stood by Alfred, and said they shouldn't pry.

Unfortunately for Alfred, the other man was Francis after all, and was immediately intrigued. Toris watched appalled as Kiku and Francis quickly conversed, and came up with a plan to find out what had riled Alfred- Kiku, because he wanted revenge for all the times Al had embarrassed him in public (and for waking him up at ungodly hours of the night all the time), and Francis because he was Francis and never passed up a chance to embarrass anyone... ever.

Toris had dropped his head in embarrassed resignation _for _the other two... and for Alfred since he was obviously in for it now- whatever _it _was.

That was how Francis and Toris found themselves in Alfred's room, listening to a suddenly unsure sounding Alfred. Francis leaned forward eagerly as Toris simply raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" Francis asked. "What's wrong."

Alfred stared at Francis for a second before answering, "Mind your own business." Francis recoiled at this, not expecting that answer. Alfred and Francis always shared secrets, if Alfred was withholding from him, it was obviously serious- not just the normal whining about how another girlfriend didn't work out.

Francis pursed his lips in a pout. "Fine. Be that way." He put of an air of disinterest, when in reality, he was more interested than ever.

"Yeah... sorry, I don't really want to talk about it." Alfred said with a anxious smile. "Anyway, don't we have some work to do or something?" He quickly steered the conversation _away _from last night.

Toris perked up at this. "Yes, we need to work on Calc." He supplied, glad to have something else to focus on than Alfred's love life. Francis on the other hand, sighed dramatically and flopped backwards onto Alfred's bed again.

"Oh but that's boring. Make Kiku do it or something, or even Elizabeta." He whined. "I'd rather go searching around the campus."

Toris and Alfred both rolled their eyes at him. They both knew that a bunch of transfer students had just arrived at the University, and Francis was planning on 'searching' for attractive foreigners. "Foreigners" being a loose term, as he was French (along with Toris being Lithuanian) and living in America. He had been born in France, but had moved to America when he was only two. He still always used a ridiculously stereotypical French accent though, claiming it was genuine.

"Well Kiku and Lizzie aren't here so you need to do it." Alfred said. He stood up and walked over to his books sitting on a coffee table. He sat down on the floor and crossed his legs, motioning for Toris to join him. Francis rolled around in self-pity for another minute before sighing, jumping to his feet, and joining the other two.

"Fine." He said. "But that means you two have to join me later." A grin spread over his face as Alfred gave a resigned nod and Toris shook his head, but still raised a hand- both giving in.

"Wonderful." Francis clapped, sitting down and opening his book. "Now how do we do Calculus again?"

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><p>Kiku trudged to Elizabeta's room. He had just finished his classes, and was exhausted. He dearly hoped that Alfred's interruption last night hadn't affected his test scores, if it had Alfred was in deep trouble.<p>

He had checked his messages again that morning and took another look at Mei's text.

_Hey Kiku, Alfred left the clubs. I'm kind of worried, he seemed really worked up. It was kind of amusing though, I was surprised he acted that way. I suppose it's none of my business. Make sure he gets home safe okay?_

Kiku made a face again, thinking. He had texted Mei again this morning, asking what exactly had happened. He had only received a cryptic answer.

_I don't think it's really my place to say. Don't worry about me, I went home a little after he left. Ask Alfred if you're really all that curious._

Kiku _was _all that curious. Something spectacular must have happened to make Alfred F. Jones act like that. He was determined to find out. He was not only driven by curiosity (and revenge) but also worried that that something bad had happened, as Mei wouldn't tell him what.

The real reason Mei didn't tell Kiku was because she knew how _that _would play out. Alfred was a nice guy, she didn't want him to have to deal with Elizabeta and to a lesser extent Kiku's antics.

Kiku finally reached Elizabeta's door and knocked. The door was yanked open and Kiku jumped. Elizabeta stood there smiling.

"Hey Kik's." She said, pulling Kiku into the room. "What took you so long?"

Kiku sighed, having to deal with her energy was really tiring sometimes. She was almost as bad as Alfred in that department. Out of their circle of friends, Toris was always the easiest to deal with; Alfred, Elizabeta and Francis were all cut from the same cloth.

"I took a bit longer on my test." Kiku said. "Alfred woke me up late last night and I was a little stressed. I apologize." He walked over and sat down in a chair placed at a small table.

"Oh it's no problem really, Angelique had to stay here late anyway,so I wasn't lonely." She said as she plopped back down in her seat opposite him.

Kiku nodded and yawned. "Ah- so what is it you wanted to talk about again?" He asked, blinking.

"The new students of course!" She squealed. "So many new possible relationships Kiku! We have such a small University that we were so limited before! But now..." She practically wiggled in her seat in excitement. "Think of all the lovey-dovey couples! It'll be so _romantic!_"

Kiku laughed. "So your plan is to go around scouting out new students and pairing them up in your head?" He asked.

"Well- uh- yeah. Maybe." She grinned. "But come on! Think of all the new cuties!"

"You're as bad as Francis." Kiku said.

"I am _not_." She sniffed. "Anyway come on! You know you want to." She stood up, grabbing onto Kiku's arm and pulling. She took a single step towards the door before Kiku stopped her.

"Wait! I have to do work first." He said, pointing at the sketchbook he had set down on the table. Elizabeta groaned and sat back down. She peered over as Kiku opened the book to a page and continued sketching on the figures there.

"Can you at least make them guys?" She asked as she took in the figures, who seemed to be in the process of dancing.

"The one is already wearing a dress." Kiku stated. Elizabeta just blinked at him blankly. "No."

"You're no fun." She grumbled, leaning back.

* * *

><p>Alfred frowned and dragged his feet as Francis dragged <em>him<em> out onto campus grounds. He didn't want to be here, and he complained loudly about how he was being dragged along against his will.

After all, he had gone to sleep late, woken up 'early', and had to do Calculus while still suffering through the effects of a very faint hangover. He was not a happy Alfred at that moment.

"Do we really have to?" He whined at Francis, who had a tight grip on his arm. "Why can't I just go back to bed?"

"Because you made me do math _ma chérie_." Francis replied smugly. Toris trailed behind them, wishing he could disappear.

It was almost noon, and many of the students were out on the campus. Alfred could pick out the new faces easily, as he knew most everyone in their small University. He spotted a few new tan faces and a few new pale ones, but he really wasn't all that into analyzing people right now. (Not that he was good at analyzing people in general.)

"Look!" Francis leaned over and whispered loudly. "She's cute isn't she?" He pointed at a petite blonde woman with a purple ribbon tied in a bow in her short hair. As if on cue, the man she was talking to lifted his head and sent a murderous glare around the courtyard.

Alfred shivered. "I'd rather not be killed anytime soon, kay?" He said, giving Francis a look.

Francis pouted. "Well what about... her?" He asked, pointing to a peppy blonde girl jumping up and down near a cherry tree. She talked excitedly to a tall blonde man next to her, his hair sticking up oddly in the front. The man simply nodded without any emotion.

"Uh- can't tell yet, but I'm gonna guess that's the same boat as the first one. Sorry." He said, looking away from the dark aura the large man was emanating.

Francis sighed. "Well this would all be easier if you were into men as well Alfred-darling. There's not nearly enough girls, and they all have boyfriends or older brothers."

Alfred stiffened. "Yeah well I'm straight. Sorry Francis." He replied a little too snappily. Francis gave Alfred a look, suddenly a little suspicious.

"Really? So you don't think that perky Italian over there is cute?" He asked, pointing a small brunette bouncing up and down, causing an odd curl on his head to bounce. The man was speaking in a rather loud Italian accent, saying something about pasta to a very similar looking man beside him.

"Of course not." Alfred answered honestly, because he didn't. "I'm sure he's a nice dude, but I just don't swing that way."

"Besides," Toris chuckled from behind them. "I think he's in the same boat as the first two." He said pointing at the irritated, slightly older looking, man that was standing there taking the endless chatter.

Francis laughed at this. "Maybe we're just forever alone, huh boys?" He asked, throwing his arms around the other two men. "Alfred and I certainly can't hold down relationships."

Alfred pouted at this. "I am much better than _you _thank you very much."

Francis laughed. "No, no, _mon ami. _At least I get past the first date before _I _get dumped, hm?"

"Shuttap." Alfred grumbled.

Toris giggled. "Don't worry Al, I'm sure at least _one _of the girls here is lacking a scary older brother, yeah?"

"And how come _you _aren't checking out the girls?" Alfred teased, drawing the attention away from himself.

"Ah- w-well." Toris stuttered. "I just think I should focus on school work, not relationships is all."

"Liar!" Francis said in a sing-song voice. "We all know you totally have the hots for-"

"Please stop." Toris said, growing red and curling away from Francis. "Can we go back to looking at the new students please?"

"Well when you put it that way I sound like a pervert." Francis stated, releasing Alfred and Toris from his grip.

"That's because you are, dude." Alfred said, chuckling.

They wandered around the courtyard for a bit longer, pointing out this person or that. Alfred was growing bored when suddenly he caught sight of someone.

His eyes widened as he spotted a bright yellow bird (maybe he hadn't been that drunk, that or he was permanently crazy now) perched on top of silver hair. He stopped in his tracts as he caught the eye of the albino man. The man stopped in his conversation with 'Toni' from the night before and a disgruntled looking blue-eyed blonde man. He smiled widely at Alfred and waved.

Alfred immediately ducked his head and tried to make a getaway but it was no use, his friends had seen the exchange and shared a look. Francis grabbed Alfred's arm and began dragging them over to the trio. "They look nice!" Francis said, pulling a very unhappy Alfred after him. "Look they're even waving us over."

Toris followed closely behind, feeling very bad for Alfred.

"Yo dude! I know you!" The albino said happily as they approached. "I was afraid I wouldn't know anyone already here because we just moved." He grinned and held a hand out a hand for Alfred to shake.

Alfred just stared at the hand, having been shoved into the edge of the circle by Francis. He took it reluctantly, as if it were poisonous.

"You know him? Really?" The perky man beside him asked in a strong Spanish accent. "We just got here."

The albino nodded. "Yeah I met him at the clubs when-" He was cut off as Alfred slammed a hand over his mouth.

"Okay! Looks like we're all buddies now- please excuse us for a moment. Talk amongst yourselves." Alfred said, dragging the albino away and leaving the four remaining people staring confused after them.

He pulled the man over to a more deserted side of the courtyard and finally released him.

"What are _you _doing here!" He hissed at the man.

The man pulled a face as the bird from his head (yup there definitely was a _real _bird) hopped down to his shoulder. He stroked the small chick absently as he stared at Alfred. "Uh, going to school?"

"Really?" Alfred said, tensing. No, this couldn't be happening.

"Uh, yeah. New transfer student and all that." The man grinned then. "Name's Gilbert by the way."

Alfred stared at the man. "Yeah, Gilbert, okay." He ran a hand through his hair. He was over-reacting again and he knew it. He took a deep breath and let it out. "Sorry about that." He mumbled.

Gilbert snickered. "No problem, bro. You seem like a cool guy. Maybe we can hang out sometime?" He asked. Alfred raised an eyebrow at this.

"Yeah... sure..." He answered hesitantly, expecting a trap from the man. He was _not _trusting the guy. After all, he had obviously been a part of the fiasco that had happened the night before. "Can we just not mention- erg- last night- to anyone 'kay?" He asked.

Gilbert looked at him for a second, before giving an evil smirk. "What? You haven't come out of the closet yet?" He asked.

Alfred gaped. "I am _straight _thank you very much."

Gilbert laughed. "Kesese. Sure." He started laughing even harder at the deadly glare that Alfred shot him. "I- I'm just joking with you! Y-you're way too serious." He was doubled over at this point. "Y-you should see your face right now!"

Alfred just kept glaring and crossed his arms.

"F-fine!" He said finally, calming down. "It's cool. I won't tell anyone. But uh- hmm..." He trailed off, sending a look over his shoulder. "If you're that worked up about it maybe you should..."

"Should what?" Alfred asked, dread filling his stomach like lead. _Oh please no. It's bad enough my friends won't leave me alone, if I have to deal with-_

"Arthur's here too." Gilbert finished.

"Arthur?" Alfred asked, already knowing the answer, but hoping for something, anything else.

"The dude who- you know- stole your date." Gilbert finished, deciding to keep his promise and not mention exactly what else Arthur had done.

Alfred stood there a moment, lost in thought. It wasn't a big deal right? I mean, sure the man had kind of assaulted him, but it was just a kiss right? Nothing special about it. Alfred totally hadn't turned into mush or anything. He turned and started walking back to his friends in silence.

"Hey! Dude! Wait for me!" Gilbert called, catching up to him. "Don't worry 'bout it dude. The campus isn't _that _small." The man said, taking a guess at Alfred's thoughts. "Plus we're bros now. I'll protect you from any mean Brits, huh?" He snickered.

Alfred wondered when exactly they had become 'bros' as they neared Francis and Toris. "It's not that big of a deal." He answered. "Just forget about it okay?"

Gilbert smirked and held out a hand. Alfred stared at it for a moment. "Phone?" He asked.

Alfred frowned, but slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He didn't really know _why _he was giving the strange, obviously untrustworthy, man his phone, but he did. The albino took it, tapped on the screen quickly and entered a number. He tossed the phone back at Alfred, forcing Alfred to fumble with it a bit as he caught it in mid-air.

"'Kay, let me know when you want to come out of-" He began, but was cut off by an elbow from Alfred. Luckily, they were still slightly out of earshot of his friends.

"Stop it." Alfred shot back. However, there was no venom this time. Oddly enough he had already gotten used to the man's teasing. They were pretty similar after all, maybe they could be friends... that was as long as this wasn't some elaborate trap.

"_Sure_. But really, we'll hang out sometime." Alfred briefly mused over when exactly this man had decided they were friends, but apparently Alfred didn't have a choice.

Gilbert snickered as they finally reached the group of four. "Oh by the way, this is my friend Toni and my little bro Luddy." He said as he jumped onto the two men, wrapping his arms around their shoulders.

"Ludwig and Antonio." The blonde said dryly.

"Yeah, yeah whateves." Gilbert said. "We need to go eat anyway, I'm starving."

Alfred laughed slightly as Gilbert dragged the men off, not even bothering to catch the names of Alfred's friends.

"So what was that about?" Francis asked, leaning in close to Alfred.

"Nothing!" Alfred said, jumping slightly at the unexpectedness of Francis suddenly near him.

"Nothing you say?" Francis asked, about to push more when suddenly a person (or rather two different people) came up to them. Alfred was relieved at the sight of Kiku and Elizabeta.

"Oh hey guys!" He called. "What're you doing?"

"Shipping!" Elizabeta replied chipperly, causing Kiku to pinken slightly and murmur something similar to "Really Elizabeta, you don't have to say that out loud".

Alfred decided he didn't really care what is weird friends were getting up to, and quickly grasped the opportunity when he had it. He began dragging his two _other _friends off to get lunch. They bought lunch from the small food court, and sat down.

Francis and Toris had followed them of course- Francis still being curious and Toris refusing to be left alone with Francis.

Alfred and his friends began eating. Alfred however, mostly played with his food and cast his gaze around the room. Alfred caught Gilbert's eye from across the room and gave a small wave. He looked over to where Elizabeta was carrying on about something.

Alfred glanced back down and picked at his food, not really listening. Eventually, Elizabeta poked him in the forehead and he looked up.

"Hello Alfred. Earth to Alfred. Come in Alfred." She said, poking his head anew on each sentence. "You hear anything I just said?"

"Huh? Oh yeah... totally." He ignored her and let his gaze wander around the room before it landed back at Gilbert's table, prepared to pass it over.

He froze however, when he caught sight of a new man sitting at the table. The man wore a T-shirt with ripped sides and the Union Jack printed diagonally across the front. His wrists were decorated by a variety of bracelets, and he looked very bored listening to Gilbert's ravings.

Alfred was unable to look away as his eyes caught certain emerald green ones. The blonde man locked gazes with Alfred and... slowly _waved_. All Alfred could focus on was the condescending looking smirk plastered across the man's face, taunting him. Alfred tensed and looked down, suddenly very interested in his food.

"Alfred." Francis said this time. "You okay?"

"Fine." Alfred snapped. He stood up suddenly. "I'm leaving now, 'kay?" He said, spinning and dropping his food in the trashcan on his way out of the room.

"Alfred?" He heard _Kiku_ call after him, (man couldn't his friends just drop it?) but he ignored them. He could feel the heat rising to his cheeks, flustered. He made his way down to his room and sighed as he closed the door behind him.

He gave his bag, which was by the door, a faint kick as he calmed down. _What the heck?_

He sent a glare at himself. Why was he letting this get to him so much? He had told Gilbert it wasn't a big deal, and it _wasn't. _There was nothing to get so worked up over. Sure he had the right to get angry that Arthur had 'stolen his date', but there was absolutely no reason to freaking' _blush _every time the situation was brought up.

Alfred reasoned that he must just still be in shock was all. Yeah, that was it. Nothing to worry about.

The American jumped as his phone beeped loudly. He looked down and saw an unknown number flashing across his screen in bold black letters. He crinkled his brow before opening the text and staring at it.

_Awesome Gilbert here, whats your schedule? Any classes w me?_

There was a media attachment, and Alfred quickly glanced through the list. He was surprised, he hadn't expected to share any classes with many of the exchange students, but there it was written plainly for him to see. He quickly typed up a reply.

_Yeah. We have all but two classes together._

He went over and sat down on a chair and kicked up his feet. He grabbed the remote for the large TV in the room and began flicking through channels, wanting to find a good horror movie and forget about his day. He was interrupted by another loud beep.

_Cool! That means you've got classes with me, T, L, A and F._

Alfred started at the text for a few minutes. He wished Gilbert had used real names other than letters. He had no idea who F was. He assumed that T was Toni and L stood for Ludwig, but who was-

_Oh god. _Alfred thought, tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling. _Arthur starts with A doesn't it._

Of course it did, and Arthur was one of Gilbert's friends. It made sense.

_No. _He reasoned. _A is probably for Antonio and T is someone I don't know._

But with the way his luck had been going so far...

Alfred leaned back so far that the chair tipped and crashed into the ground before he could grab the table to steady himself. He felt his back slam into the ground suddenly. He groaned as he now laid there on the floor and stared up at the ceiling.

Life really did hate him didn't it?

* * *

><p><strong>So there it is. .-.<strong>

**I really hope it wasn't disappointing, I got super nervous after all the hype you guys gave my first chapter. Hahaha...heh. o_o"**

**In this chapter Alfred continues to insist that he is most certainly straight, Arthur is most definitely not hot, and he is most definitely not attracted to him at all... Good luck with that babbu, you're going to need it. (Straight as a curly fry.)**

**Also, the reason the meeting with Gil goes over so well is because Al ****_really _****isn't one to hold a grudge. You could peg the guy and he'd be willing make friends with you like, 10 minutes later. Sure, he was angry at Gil at the time but he's willing to let bygones be bygones. He is still very much ticked at Arthur though. I mean come on! The man like totally assaulted him! He has the right to be mad and it's totally not like, unresolvedsexualtensionoranythinglikethat... Yup. **

**(Fun fact- Kiku is an art major. Elizabeta makes him draw doujinshi.)**

**AND ****_Quick_****! Someone throw me some hetero couples so I can make the student body seem at least somewhat reasonable. Like... a ratio of maybe 25-75 at least (since this is Hetalia). Right now I have PruHun and that's about where I've hit the end of my list. They can't all be gay/bi, that's unrealistic, some of them have to ****_actually_**** be straight. (Ignores Alfred's protests in the background) GAH!- HALP ME.**

**Anyway I wonder how Alfred would react when he realizes that like... 99% of the student body is gay and no one questions it. Probably something along the lines of "there's something in the water isn't there?". Well darling you go to that school too. /wink-wink-nudge-nudge/**

**Comments? Hope I didn't disappoint. :I**


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh look I did I thing with words and a keyboard. I hope it turned out okay. XD**

**And ha... 21 followers after two chapters.. -Shoves Alfred at you- Just take him! Just kidding, but really, you guys are insane. (And I can say you guys now without feeling stupid.)**

* * *

><p>Alfred woke up in the morning debating the benefits and downfalls of going to class that day. He was laying face-down in his pillows and thought that it would be rather nice just to stay like that all day. His head hurt for no particular reason, and in all he felt under the weather. He'd stayed in his room for all the rest of the previous day after receiving that fateful text from Gilbert, and had searched the channels intently for a movie.<p>

Unfourtuantely for Kiku, Alfred had located a _Japanese _horror movie, and had spent the first few hours of the night cursing Kiku for his country's movie. Kiku had remined Alfred that he had lived in America for the past ten years, so he had no involvement in said movie, despite whatever irrational thoughts Alfred may have.

In all, Alfred hadn't slept well.

_Maybe I should just go to a different university... or country. _He thought. He didn't even bother to try to rationalize this over-reaction like he had been all his thoughts recently- he was far too tired.

He turned and looked up at the ceiling, making a pointless list. _Positive one_- He wouldn't have to make up work later. It was always a pain getting work from a day he missed, seeing as almost none of his friends shared any classes with him. And even then, most of his friends took horrible notes that Alfred couldn't understand a word of... However now he had certain people who shared almost all his classes that he could-

Which lead to negative one, he most certainly didn't want to face said schedule sharing transfer students. He made of face as he turned again, listening to the blaring of his alarm clock continue on. (He hadn't even had the energy to bother to hit snooze.) It wasn't like he was nervous to see the students or anything, he just _really_ didn't want to deal with them.

_Positive two_- Alfred began. _Uhm..._ He crinkled his face, straining. Maybe he would just stay in bed... yeah, that sounded nice. But maybe...

His mind was made for him when a pillow flew at his face. He yelped and tried to dodge, but it nailed him. He lay there for a minute, pillow sitting on his face, before finally getting up and moving. He glared at Kiku, who was fully dressed and just happened to be making his bed. The man just shot him an innocent smile.

"Ugh." Alfred murmured. "Fiiine." Kiku could always tell when Alfred was planning on being lazy and usually gave him a kick to get him started. Alfred usually appreciated it after the fact, as it saved him hastle later. He had the sinking feeling today would not be one of those days.

Kiku grinned as Alfred left his line of sight. He sat down and waited for Alfred to get ready. Kiku was looking forward to classes with the new students; he wasn't all that social, but he hoped that the new students would be nice. He knew Alfred would definitely befriend some of them, so he could expect to be around them either way. Maybe he would make a friend of his own.

Alfred finally came back to their room and gave Kiku a bleary-eyed look. "You know throwing things isn't nice." He grumbled. Kiku just smiled and opened the door. He stepped out into the hall and directly into a man.

"Oh! I apologize." Kiku said, giving a slight bow while Alfred peered curiously over his shoulder.

"No problem." The cheery tan man answered. "I should have been more careful."

Alfred raised a brow as Kiku shook his head. "No, it was my fault." The man just shrugged and trotted off down the hall.

Kiku leaned out and stared after him. "Weird." Alfred snorted, pushing Kiku into the hallway. The smaller man stumbled for a step before shooting Alfred a glare, one which Alfred answered with Kiku's signature 'innocent' smile.

"Class?" He asked, skipping out after Kiku.

Kiku sighed as they walked down the hallway, annoyed at Alfred but relieved that his friend seemed to be acting normal again. "Yes, that _is_ why we are going to school."

Alfred snickered. He had decided that he would put on the most positive attitude possible today. He swore he wouldn't let anything get him down today, no matter what happened.

His wide smile faltered as he thought over what famous last words those could be.

* * *

><p>Alfred waved as he finally parted ways from Kiku. His friend headed down towards the Art wing while Alfred walked down to his Computor Programming class. He realized that Gilbert had never told him <em>which <em>classes he had with the new students. He reached the doorway and took a deep breath before pushing open the door.

No albinos in sight, Alfred smiled and walked over to his seat. So he didn't have Computor Programming with the transfer students, that was good. After all, Commputor Programming was one of Alfred's favorite classes, and he wouldn't have liked having to worry about the transfer students in such an enjoyable class.

Not that he was worried or anything.

He passed the next two hours running his fingers over the keyboard in front of him expertly. He worked quietly and barely noticed when class ended. He streached his arms out above his head as he watched the computor shut down. It wasn't until the computor fully faded to black before Alfred stood up and started walking to the door.

"Good day, Jones." The professor said as Alfred walked out. Alfred smiled and nodded but it was no use as the man's eyes didn't leave his book.

Alfred wandered out to the courtyard, as it would be another hour until his next class. He sat down at a picnic table and pulled a few books out of his backpack. He glared down at his Economics books like they were the bane of his existance. He ran a hand through his hair and pushed his glasses up on his face.

He passed the next half-hour like this, stopping occasionally to give directions to one new student or another that seemed lost. At one point, a blonde woman had sat down beside him and asked if he could help _her _with Economics since she had just been thrown into the class without any prior knowledge.

He had smiled and agreed, recognizing her from earlier.

"So you're one of the new transfer students right?" He asked, twirling a pencil in his right hand and resting his chin in his left. The girl giggled.

"Yes. I'm from Belgium! My name is Laura." She said smiling. She wore a white blouse and black skirt, looking slightly formal. Her shoulder length hair was pulled back by a black headband- all except for her bangs, which fell forward into her face.

"Well I'm from America!" Alfred proclaimed loudly, getting a laugh from the girl to his left. "Oh- and I'm Alfred." He said with an over-exagerated wink.

"Well Alfred I thought that was obvious, you're just _too _American." She said, resting the side of her head in her left hand as she faced Alfred.

"Is that bad?" He asked. He wondered why he had been so nervous this morning. He'd made the assumption that all of the transfer students would be horrible and stressful, his only examples to judge off of being Gilbert and... well. But this girl seemed so nice. Perhaps he'd been too quick to make judgements.

"No. After all isn't the sterotype for Americans fun and cute?" She asked, poking at his forehead with her pencil- she'd spread out her books in front of her as well.

"Cute?" He asked, giving her a charming smile. "Me? Naw."

"Well I said Americans are supposed to be cute, anyway." She said, waving a hand and looking away.

"What! But you just said I was super American!" Alfred said, feigning offense.

"Maybe you are, maybe you aren't." She joked. "What sterotypes do you have for Belgian people like me here in America?" She asked, looking at him out of the side of her eyes.

"Huh?" Alfred asked. "Well, the choclate's one thing. Belgian chocolate is supposed to be super amazing_. _You wouldn't happen to have any would you?"

She gave him a look. "I meant about the people silly. You know, if all you think about is food, maybe the sterotype of Americans being chubby is true."

Alfred gasped, clutching his heart. "I was working up to that! I was going to say that maybe Belgian people are as sweet as their chocolate." He winked. "But with that fat comment I'm not so sure, maybe they're bitter. Like dark chocolate, but being the fat American I am, I think dark chocolate is just as good." He said, smiling at her.

"Hmm. Maybe you _aren't _chubby." She said, tilting her head thoughtfully before looking back down at her book. Her smile immediately turned into a frown. "So, sterotypes aside, I really _do _need help with this. I have Economics next and I have no idea what to do."

Alfred grinned like an idiot (hero!) and asked if he could highlight her book. She nodded and he began at chapter one, highlighting all the important points and things they had been tested on- explaining as he went. Alfred really was a bright student, despite what his friends might tell you.

He chuckled at the annoyed pout on Laura's face when she didn't understand something. He would repeat his explination, clarifing certain parts until she nodded. She was very cute, especially in the way she twirled her hair  
>absently.<p>

"Ah!" She exclaimed when she glanced down at her watch. "I have to get to class." She said, gathering her books.

"Oh, that means I do too." Alfred helped her gather her books before shoving his own in his bag. "We have the same Economics class- I think. I have mine now anyways too."

Laura nodded as they started walking down to the same classroom, apparently they did share the class. "That means you can help me later too." She said chipperly. "Truth is, I asked someone else earlier and they totally blew me off, scary. But I'm glad they did, if they hadn't I wouldn't have met you. You seem so nice Alfred."

Alfred shot her a wink as they entered the doorway. "You too." He said. Laura looked around the classroom nervously before Alfred pushed on her shoulder slightly to aim her towards the professor's desk. "She'll tell you your seat." He provided helpfully. Laura nodded vigourouly before heading over.

Alfred had been so absorbed with Laura that he hadn't bothered to look up at the rest of the room. He finally did as he moved to his seat and felt his stomach drop. Gilbert sat across the room, giving Al a thumbs up and pointing at Laura's back, making kissy faces. Alfred started rubbing his temples. So he would have to deal with Gilbert for-

His train of thought stopped as he took in the people near Gilbert. Ludwig sat next to him, showing all the obvious signs of annoyance aimed at his brother. He dropped his head into his hands and elbowed Gilbert sharply in the side, causing the man to only laugh louder. Alfred then caught sight of the person two seats down from Gilbert, sitting next to Ludwig.

The green-eyed blonde seemed just as annoyed as Ludwig. He had his arms crossed hautily across his chest and was leering angrily, the only difference was that his gaze seemed to be leveled directly on Alfred. Alfred moved his gaze quickly, not wanting to look at the peircing eyes any longer.

This turned out to be a very bad idea, because he then found himself taking in the man's outfit. The first thing he spotted was the black collar that hung from around Arthur's neck, which caused him to glance at the bracelets adorning the man's wrists. Things quickly grew out of hand from there, as Alfred found himself examining everything about the man. He wore a bright white T-shirt and had a jean-vest with torn off sleeves thrown over his shoulders. Alfred's eyes caught on yet another Union Jack printed across one side of his vest, declaring loud and clear that the man was from the U.K. His gaze trailed over the chains that hung from the waist of his torn, faded, skinny jeans, and finally landed on his bright red shoes. Alfred jolted suddenly as he realized he had paused. Walking stiffly the rest of the way to his seat, he wondered briefly how long he'd been staring at the man.

Apparently long enough, because when Alfred glanced over again the man's glare had turned into a smirk. _Shit. _Alfred thought, mentally kicking himself. Why had he gone and done that? He'd acted like a total-

Wait... why did he care? Scatch that- he didn't care. Definitely not.

Alfred fidgeted in his seat the whole class. He'd hoped that Laura would be seated near him, but she had ended up somewhat in front of him in the circular room. Unless he wanted to jump over a few people, he wouldn't be talking to her. Instead, a very quiet blonde girl with a purple ribbon in her hair had been seated next to him in the empty seat. He had tried to make conversation with her, but had clammed up when he'd been shot a glare from whom he assumed was her brother. He remembered the comment that he himself had made earlier. He really _didn't _want to get shot, terrible transfer students or no.

His other side was still empty, not having enough students, even with the new transfer students, to fill up the whole room.

The class passed painfully slowly. He barely consentrated on his work at all, mind drifting the whole time. At least Gilbert and his gang had been seated on the _opposite _side of the room and Alfred hadn't had to deal with the very loud commotion he could hear all the way from his side of the room. He finally snapped out of his daze as everyone else in the class started packing their books.

He packed up quickly, rubbing his eyes. He tensed as he saw motion out of the corner of his eyes as Gilbert waved over to him. Alfred shuffled slightly before starting to walk over. He knew he couldn't avoid the confrontation forever, at least this way Gilbert would be-

Luckily, Laura bounced up to him, stopping his walk over to 'death-row'.

"Hey Alfred!" She called. "Could you help me find my next class?" She asked, batting her eyes at him.

Alfred sighed in relief. "Yeah of course." He answered, purposely ignoring Gilbert's loud 'not cool dude' from the other side of the room. He shot Gilbert a wide smile before walking out the door quickly with Laura. He shifted uncomfortably, as if he could feel a stare on his back.

"Are you sure it's no problem?" Laura asked, suprised at the speed Alfred had ushered them out the door.

"Oh it's fine!" Alfred said, grinning. "I don't even have classes for a while so it's okay."

Laura nodded, uncertainty leaving her face. "Thank you then."

Alfred showed her to her next class, thanking _her _for a reason she didn't quite understand and he didn't bother explaining, and then walked off to wander campus like he usually did. He tugged on the collar of his authentic WWII bomber jacket, pulling it securly around him before he walked out into the open air again.

He jumped as he felt a hand tap on his shoulder and looked up to see the man from earlier, when Kiku had opened the door in his face.

"Can I help you?" He asked, unsure. Maybe he needed directions.

The man nodded almost violently, confirming Alfred's suspicions. "Do you know where they sell pasta?" He asked, seemingly very frantic.

Alfred raised a brow, suddenly recognizing the Italian man from the courtyard yesterday. "They don't sell pasta on campus, you'll have to go into the city."

The Italian gasped and started clinging to Alfred's arm, making the man uncomfortable. "But I need pasta!" He cried. He pulled on Alfred's jacket sleeve desperately. "Please!"

Alfred shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Well... I suppose you could ask to make some in Culinary. Do you know where the culinary wing is?" He asked, slowly prying the clingy Italian off of him.

The man shook his head and listened to Alfred enthusiastically. He almost seemed like a puppy. Alfred sighed, not actually annoyed, but slighly amused. "Come here, I'll show you." He said as he began to walk away.

"You're very nice." The Italian said, bouncing after him. "My name is Feliciano Vargas, nice to meet you." Alfred nodded, busy staring at the one curl of hair that came off the man's head. Maybe he wasn't one to judge, having a cowlick he could never tame, but it was very odd.

"Alfred Jones." Alfred said. He looked around at all the people moving around them and realized that there were many more transfer students than he had first thought, the halls were much more crowded than usual. What had the university done again to get these students? He couldn't for the life of him quite remember.

He walked in silence with Feliciano for a bit. They entered the empty culinary wing, and the deathly quiet of the halls seemed to convince the Italian against making conversation- not that the silence was awkward.

"Oh! Is this were they cook?" He asked, poking his head into the room as Alfred waved an arm at the doorway. Feliciano bounced happily as he ran inside. Alfred leaned in after him, staying outside of the room. He gave the professor there a meaningful look, glad that she didn't have class to deal with now along with the Italian. He turned and left the room, walking down the mostly empty wing. Nobody had Culinary this time of day because most (if not all) of the culinary students worked in the various food shops around lunch time.

Alfred stopped in his tracks as he heard voices from around the corner.

"Are you sure you tomato bastard?" A voice snarled. "Why would he come down this way?"

"Well-" A voice that Alfred recognized to be Ludwig started.

"Don't you start you potato eater!" The same man hissed. "I still do _not _approve of you."

"Lovi..." A third voice, (Antonio?) started, but ended the same way as Ludwig's attempt.

"I don't want to hear it!" The man yelled. "And don't call me Lovi!"

"Oh Lovi, you are such a tomato." Antonio said anyway. "Look at how red you are!"

"And not just the fruit, if you know what I mean." A fourth voice snickered. Alfred tensed as he recognized Gilbert's voice. He looked around quickly, if he went into a nearby classroom maybe he could avoid...

"Remind me why I associate myself with you all again?" A final, rather English, voice said as the five of them rounded the corner. Alfred cursed himself as he entered their line of sight. Well, there was no avoiding them now.

The man who was leading the group stopped for a beat before storming up to Alfred rather violently. "You seen my _fratello_? Short _idiot _with brown hair?" Alfred shyed away from the raging man.

"Uh- yeah. He went to ask the Culinary professor if he could make pasta." Alfred responded, suddenly wondering if it had been the right choice to lead the cheery Italian down here. His brother seemed majorly ticked.

The man looked at him for a moment before tossing his arms up in the air in defeat. "I give up! He's hopeless! I don't know why I even try anymore. I had to hunt him down after he got lost earlier and now he ran off looking to make _pasta. _Aiyyah." He continued storming down the hallway, causing Antonio to rush after him.

Ludwig followed behind the two, feeling a headache come on. "Maybe we should get a tracking collar on him." He mumbled.

"_We _my ass, potato bastard. I still don't want you anywhere near my _fratello._" The Italian shot back.

Ludwig just shook his head tiredly. The three of them left, leaving Alfred standing alone with Gilbert and Arthur as they located the classroom Feliciano had gone into. Alfred jumped nearly a foot in the air as Gilbert flung an arm around his shoulder and pulled on him.

"Dude! You totally ditched me earlier! Not coool." He said, pulling Alfred after his friends. Alfred would have much rather walked in the _opposite _direction, but the albino wasn't giving him much choice. He frowned as if he could feel the stare of the English man on his back as Arthur trailed behind them slightly.

"Sorry," He said. "Laura needed help getting to her next class." He tried to work his way out of Gilbert's grip. Why were all these foreigners so touchy-feely? He _almost_ felt his cheeks pinken when he remembered how _else _they were... touchy-feely.

"Ohh I see how it is." Gilbert sniffed, releasing Alfred. "I thought it was bros before hos but I guess I was wrong. Or maybe we're just not bros." He said, sticking his head into the room where a four-way argument was occuring. He giggled as he watched the angry Italian (Lovi?) storm up to Ludwig and yell something in his face. Antonio tried to pull the man back, but apparently he was stronger than he looked (or Antonio wasn't trying very hard) because the man easily broke out of his grasp. Feliciano just looked on worriedly, not sure what side to take.

"Looks like the awesome Gilbert is needed to break this up!" The albino called out before rushing into the room. "Watch out!" He called before barrelling into the two arguing men. The three of them crashed into the ground, Ludwig protesting weakly, Lovino cursing loudly, and Gilbert making a sound that sounded similar to 'kesesesesese'.

Alfred flinched as the professor finally lost it and pulled the trio up. She yelled at them angrily and began dragging them out. Alfred backpedaled quickly to stay out of her warpath. She fumed as the trio finally gave up their fighting and started walking behind her on their own accord, Gilbert still giggling. Antonio followed after them, calling that he would 'protect you Lovi!'. Feliciano followed behind him, tittering about like a nervous mother bird, but not saying anything.

Alfred had been so obsorbed in the scene playing out in front of him that it took him a second to realize that suddenly the whole 'gang' was gone leaving him alone with-

_Crap._

* * *

><p><strong>For any that don't know, Gilbert's jab at Lovino (the tomato comment) is a reference to the fact that in urban dictionary a 'tomato' is a man who won't admit he's homosexual. I find this highly hilarious in reference to Spamano and the whole 'tomato' teasing thing they have going on that everyone writes about. XD<strong>

**While writing this I thought about how cute it would be for Belgium to feed America chocolates... but then I remember USUK and I slap some sense back into myself. (I can't OTP anything more than I OTP USUK. Ever)**

**Okay- I need serious feedback. :I**

**For one, I need to know what you think of Arthur. I'm not sure exactly how I want to write him. Should he be okay? Should he be totally terrible? Honestly I'm leaning towards making him a total D for just a bit. (He'll get better either way.) But if that's not what you want then y'know, I'll make him a bit better. (Bit, he's still a punk.)**

**Second is shippings. Obviously we've got USUK. I always lean towards GerIta and Spamano (as seen in this chapter) but other than that I'll take suggestions. (I got some suggestions last chapter so I'll work on those. :) Ah the beauty of unknown ships.)**

**Also, should this fic be overall USUK or UKUS? I'm definitely having bits of both right now (and will overall). I mean, Alfred's kind of a dork in this, but he isn't a push-over. So idk, when he finally does realize he likes Arthur how's he going act? :O Dun-dun-dun.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello. (^.^)**

**Sorry it took me so long to write this, but I've been super-busy with new classes. **

* * *

><p>Alfred looked over to where Arthur leaned against the opposite wall. The man watched his friends go, raising one rather impressive eyebrow at the scene as it left.<p>

"Aren't you going to go with them?" Alfred asked.

The man then turned his attention to Alfred. "Why should I? If I go with them now I'll just get in as much trouble as them for something I didn't do. If I'm going to get punished, I'd prefer it to be for something I actually did."

Alfred shifted nervously. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." He said, suddenly very conscious that there was no one else in the culinary wing.

"Yes..." Arthur was focusing on Alfred while the other did his best to focus on anything _not_-Arthur. Alfred was overly aware of the man looking him up and down, and unconsciously pulled his jacket tighter around his shoulders.

"Well I have to go now-" He said, finding himself desperately trying to come up with an excuse to get out of the situation he found himself in. Though, why did he even need to make excuses in the first place? He shouldn't need to have a reason to leave. It was just awkward because there was no one else in the hall and the other man obviously wasn't planning on moving anytime soon. He didn't want to be rude.

"What's the rush?" The man asked, grinning. Alfred stiffened. "This is our first face to face talk after all- I'm Arthur Kirkland."

Alfred nodded. Perhaps this was a good situation _to _be rude in. He really didn't want to spend anymore time in this hallway. If the man wanted to stay in the deserted halls than so be it. "Alfred." He replied quickly before starting to shuffle down the long hallway. Why was the hallway so long again?

"Yes. I knew that." Alfred internally cursed as the man pushed off the wall and started walking beside him. "Gilbert told me."

"Yeah- Gilbert." Alfred replied, not bothering to come up with a real response and quickening his steps slightly. Even though Arthur was slightly shorter than him, the man had no trouble keeping up with Alfred's somewhat longer strides. Alfred suddenly scowled, why was he acting all nervous? Wasn't he angry at this man? He _was _angry at this man.

"Gilbert can be quite the character sometimes." Arthur said. "But he's gotten me out of a few... potentially nasty situations." He gave Alfred a pointed look then, which Alfred pointedly _ignored. _

"Yeah?" Alfred answered. He felt relief well in his chest as he neared the doorway to the rest of the campus, soon he'd be able to get away from the... uncomfortably close English man.

"Yes." Arthur drawled. "Like stopping a fight from forming here in America already." He looked at Alfred impassively out of the corner of his eye, but couldn't stop a grin when the American flinched. "That could have ended nastily."

"Yes." Alfred said through gritted teeth. He was definitely angry now. "It probably would have."

Arthur laughed. "Wow, that's cold isn't it?" He asked, watching as Alfred reached for the doorknob that would serve as the man's escape. He decided to make one last jab before the man escaped his grasp. "I thought I did rather well."

Anger was no longer sufficient to describe the emotions that swirled through Alfred at that moment, they were much more bunched up and twisted now. Alfred had frozen with his grip on the doorknob. He simply stood like that for half a second as his feelings stewed. After all of his emotions clicked into place he spun, anger bursting out.

"Well I thought it sucked." He shot back, bristling. He could feel his face heat up. He grew even more red as the man simply crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, smirking.

"Well then that's your fault since you didn't kiss back," he said as he took in the red-faced man standing in front of him. It was far too easy to rile him up.

"I-" Alfred started.

"But I don't know-" Arthur cut in quickly, lifting a hand up to his chin and tilting his head slightly, as if appraising Alfred. "I'd say you're lying." Grin widening, he pointed at Alfred's blushing face.

Alfred glared. "Oh _screw you._" He hissed tossing open the door. "You practically attacked me! I don't even know why I'm talking to you."

"I don't know, why are you? Why haven't you walked out the door yet?" Arthur asked, causing Alfred to glare and do just that, storming out. Arthur walked slowly out after the raging American, taking his time. "Talk to you later, poppet." He called, chuckling slightly, at Alfred's retreating form.

Alfred simply ignored him and continued on his way down towards the commons, fuming internally.

* * *

><p>Elizabeta tapped her fingers absently on the surface of her desk. Statistics may have been the most boring class she had ever taken. She sighed, closing her eyes and resting her head on her free hand. The professor kept talking in the front of the class, but Elizabeta couldn't be bothered to listen. She let her mind drift off into fantasies and smiled happily. In fact, her head started to dip as consciousness slipped from her.<p>

A finger tapped on her shoulder, jolting her awake. It took all of her will not to yell out loudly. She blinked and rubbed her eyes before looking over to thank the person who had woken her.

Roderich smiled at her before turning back to the front of the class. She whispered a quick 'thanks' before tapping on her head and reprimanding herself for almost falling asleep. Sure, Stats may have been boring, but that was really no reason to behave like that. However, it hadn't been her fault that Angelique had kept her up all last night sobbing and needing comfort after her recent break-up. Elizabeta, being the wonderful friend she was, had stayed up until Angelique had fallen asleep at 2:30 in the morning, worn out from retelling her story. Needless to say, Elizabeta hadn't slept well.

Elizabeta pulled her signature flower out of her hair and placed it carefully back behind her ear, righting it from where it had slipped during her brief dozing off. _Only another hour. _She thought sourly, looking up at the clock.

Just then, the door to the room burst open. Half the class jumped and turned. A grinning man stood in the doorway, arms spread wide.

"Sorry I'm late professor!" He declared, a bit too loudly. "I had to break up a fight. They almost punished me for it too! Can you believe that?" He put his hands on his hips and scanned the room.

The professor took a deep breath and rubbed at his temples. He'd heard about all the transfer students coming to his class- this being a rather small university- but none of them had really had individual records, only a few. Gilbert Beilschmidt had been one of them.

"Mr. Beilschmidt," The teacher began, "Please just quiet down and take your seat. I assume you brought your books?"

Gilbert nodded. "Where's my seat Prof?" He asked, looking around the room mischeviously. He had this class alone- some other transfer students were in here, but none of his friends. Who would he drag into his 'fun' in here?

The professor pointed at in the general direction of Elizabeta and she internally groaned. Great, now she'd have to deal with this obviously obnoxious man too. Stats had been bad enough already. Gilbert grinned and walked his way up to his new seat. He plopped down next to Elizabeta loudly.

Roderich sent the man a glare, distain evident in his look. The albino man actually stuck his tongue out at Roderich, causing the man to raise his eyebrows in suprise. Gilbert snickered and pulled out his books as the professor continued on his lecture and he was promptly ignored.

"So," he said, leaning over to Elizabeta. "What's up? What'd I miss?"

Elizabeta rolled her eyes. "About a quarter of a year if we want to be literal here." She placed a hand on her hip and glared as the man laughed.

"Well I guess," he replied finally. "I was talking about today though." He tilted back in his seat, causing the front two legs to lift off the ground as the back legs balanced his weight. He put his arms up behind his head, resting the back of his head on his interlocked hands. He had a single foot keeping him steady, tucked around the leg of his desk- while the other was pulled up and crossed over the first, foot resting on his other knee. Elizabeta scoffed at the man's posture.

"Figure it out on your own time," she replied, turning away and feigning disintrest. In truth, she just didn't want to admit that she hadn't been listening it at all and had planned to get notes from Roderich later.

Gilbert made a face. "What's wrong with you?" He had just gotten here, and already this woman was acting like she hated him. He thought back briefly, what could have made her annoyed? His loud entrance? His disregard for formality? His personality? No... No, it couldn't be that, he was awesome after all, she must just be boring.

Elizabeta jerked. "What's wrong with me? Nothing's wrong with me. And who are you to talk?" She crossed her arms uncomfortably, suddenly self-conscious. This man had just met her and he was already making jabs? Roderich glanced over and pretended not to watch them. He pursed his lips.

"Nothing, nothing." Gilbert quickly tried to pacify her. "You just seemed mad is all. _Mein gott_."

"Hmpf," she mumbled, "Sorry, I guess." She looked back down at the notes she had in front of her and found little there that actually resembled Statistics. She sighed and rubbed at her eyes again.

"No problem." Gilbert replied, letting the front legs of his chair hit the ground again. He rolled his shoulders back and cracked his knuckles. Leaning down over his book, he began resting his head in his right hand and looking over the classroom.

Elizabeta grew more and more sleepy once again as the class streached on. After trying to take real notes for a bit, she gave up and began doodling in her notebook.

"I'm Gilbert by the way." The boy to her right said, looking down at her scribbles. She shifter her arm so it covered her drawings. The man simply pouted and began rocking back in his chair again.

There was a long pause then before, "Elizabeta." Gilbert grinned, glad the girl hadn't written him off completely. That was all they said for a while before something clicked.

"Have I seen you around before? I swear I have." Gilbert said, tilting his head thoughtfully. Elizabeta shrugged.

"Maybe." She answered back. "You've been on the campus for a while right? You probably saw me somewhere." She didn't look up at all during this answer, continuing to work on the doodles laid out in front of her. A forest was slowly forming before her as she began giving the bare trunks of trees and bushes she had doodled leaves.

"Hmm..." Gilbert hummed before perking up and snapping his fingers. "I saw you at lunch yesterday!" He stated triumphantly, acting like this was a major accomplishment. Elizabeta finally looked up, giving the man a slightly disbelieving look, brows coming down to a point.

"Could you be any louder?" She asked. He simply snickered, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Yeah, you were there with Al right?" Elizabeta gave up on her doodle and closed her notebook. Roderich glanced over again and Elizabeta gave him a pained smile. She turned back to Gilbert.

"Yes. I know Alfred, we're friends." She sighed, resting her head in her hand again. She was already getting tired from just talking to this man. Gilbert smiled.

"Cool. That's where I saw you then. He's kind of hopeless though." He snickered. They jumped as a faint peep could be heard from the bag lying at Gilbert's side. Gilbert quickly flinched and let his chair fall to the ground in a somewhat clumsy manner. He dived down for his bag and made a hushing noise. Elizabeta looked around to see if anyone had noticed; no one looked over at them.

"You know pets aren't allowed in here right?" Roderich spoke up, glaring at Gilbert. "You could get in serious trouble."

Gilbert simply shot the irrate man a large grin. "Aww. Come on, I couldn't leave Gilbird all alone, he would've been so sad." Roderich looked at the albino for a minute before rubbing at the bridge of his nose, pushing up his glasses.

"Did you actually name your bird after yourself?" he asked as Gilbert scrambled off the ground. He pulled his bag up with him, resting it on his lap. Gilbert kept a hand in, apparently petting the bird that was hidden away in his bag. A small chirp escaped the bag before Gilbert hushed the hidden bird again.

"Uh... Yeah?" Gilbert said slowly once the bird was appeased. "What's wrong with that? I was like... twelve. Chill out."

Roderich just stared before turning away- giving up. Elizabeta smiled slightly at Roderich's sigh. She turned back to Gilbert again. "What were you saying again?" She asked.

"Hmm?" Gilbert asked, placing his bag back on the floor. "What was I... oh, just that Alfred's kind of hopeless is all." He grinned at her, resting his cheek on his right hand again.

"What do you mean?" She asked, brow crinkling. She wondered briefly how she had been dragged into a conversation with this man, but it was happening- and she didn't mind it all that much as she had at first.

"Oh, nothing." He chuckled quietly. Elizabeta raised an eyebrow at this, but Gilbert simply shrugged. She rolled her eyes and looked up at the clock. She was suprised to see that only five minutes were left in class.

"Though... I don't know, maybe I could tell you." Gilbert said, drawing her attention back to him. He shot her a wink, red eyes gleaming. Elizabeta was intrigued now. Hadn't Kiku said something about Alfred acting weird? Maybe this man had something to do with it.

"Really?" She asked, absently tapping her fingers on the desk. Gilbert nodded.

"Maaaybe." He drawled. He had promised Alfred he wouldn't tell anyone about it, but the man really did need a push. Plus, was he really breaking his promise if he didn't mention it _specifically? _If Elizabeta was his friend then she could probably figure it out. And- well admittedly Gilbert was just trying to keep up a non-hostile conversation with this girl.

She pursed her lips, causing Gilbert to smile at her expression. "Well are you going to?" She asked, a bit testilly. Gilbert winced, okay maybe the non-hostile conversation route hadn't worked out all that well. But still...

"Okaay. I guess." He said teasingly, watching her expression. She rolled her eyes. Suddenly everyone began moving, as class was offically over.

"I don't care that much-" She began, gathering up her books.

"Okay! I'll tell you. Geez, don't be so entusiastic or anything." He muttered, not pleased that she was simply leaving without another look at him. "Maybe you should ask your friend about 'Arthur', huh?"

Elizabeta raised an eyebrow at this, walking over to the door where Roderich was waiting. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?" She asked.

Gilbert followed for a bit. "No, but it'll mean something don't worry." He tried to grab her attention one last time before giving up as she turned away.

His eyes widened as the brown haired man by the door took a hold of Elizabeta's hand and they walked out of the room together. She was with the snob that had been shooting him glares the whole time? Really?

Gilbert scowled, walking out of the class and turning- heading down towards the dorms.

* * *

><p>Alfred lounged about around the commons that were located just outside the male dorms. He didn't have classes for the rest of the day, and the television in his room was on the fritz. He'd have to get Kiku to fix it later, but for now that meant there was no entertainment or distraction to be found in his own room. Unless he wanted to read that is- and while Alfred actually did enjoy reading, all that was in his room was Kiku's backwards books.<p>

So, Alfred found himself lying back on an old couch in the commons- unapposedly watching the TV, as only two other students were there. Alfred didn't feel like roaming campus like he usually did, he was in a sour mood.

How dare that man talk to him like that? Not only had Arthur come in and screwed with him, but now Alfred couldn't get away from him. Not only had the man _had _to come to Alfred's university, but apparently share his classes too. To top it off, the man acted like he held something over Alfred. Really, it was all just a big mess, and Alfred couldn't wait to get out of it.

Alfred winced at his own inner thoughts, even if he was angry, there was no reason to dwell on it so much. Alfred crossed his arms over his chest and tried to pay attention to the show going on in the screen in front of him. He wondered briefly what he would say the next time he saw Arthur. Obviously he couldn't just ignore the man and pretend he didn't exist, not only did they share classes but apparently the man had no intentions of letting Alfred do so.

He looked up as he heard a commotion by the entrance-way. He ducked his head as he spotted Gilbert and Arthur walking in. _Oh for goodness sake! _He internally fumed. _Why can't I get a break for once._

Gilbert was laughing loudly as the two of them walked in. _Not here. Not here. Not here._

"Oh hey Al!" _Crap._

"Hey Gil." He said, forcing a smile as the albino marched over. Gilbert just laughed, noticing Alfred's obviously fake grin.

"Aww. Are you not happy to see me? You didn't get in trouble for the whole 'fight' thing with Ludwig and Lovino did you?" He asked, sitting down next to Alfred on the couch.

"No, I'm fine." He replied, focusing back on the screen in front of him. _Please go away. _He thought the sentance forcefully, as if trying to push the thought onto Gilbert. Maybe if he left, he wouldn't have to deal with Arthur.

A loud sigh startled Alfred out of his attempted mind-control. Gilbert turned to Arthur, who was standing lazily by the foot of the couch. "Hey Gil, I'd just _love _to stand around, but I'm heading down to unpack my stuff."

With that he turned and walked away. Alfred almost felt like he got away with _something _before the man caught Alfred's gaze and smiled smugly. Alfred sank into the cusions of the couch, not feeling so much like he'd won anything anymore.

Gilbert snorted. "What a snore." He complained, pulling his legs up on the couch and sitting cross-legged.

"Yeah... sure. Don't you need to unpack too?" Alfred asked.

"Nah. I haven't even looked up my room yet." Gilbert replied, leaning forward and making a face at the television. "What _are _you watching dude? American television is weird."

"Wait, how have you not looked up your room? Where did you sleep last night?" Alfred was confused. He turned away from the TV to look at Gilbert, confusion written clearly across his face.

"Hotel." Gilbert replied. "A few of use were staying in a hotel until our clases started and we moved in. We were in America for a bit before we officially came here- you know, to ease into the culture shock and all that." He stared at the screen the whole time while saying this, face crinkled in concentration.

"Oh... so I guess that was you and your friends?" Alfred asked.

"Yup. It was Ludwig, Antonio, Arthur, Feliciano, Lovino and I." He said, finally looking away from the screen and piercing Alfred with his red eyes. "Actually, it was the first time we all met up."

Alfred was suprised at this, and it showed in his expression. "Really?" He asked. "But you all seem so close- well most of you anyway. I thought you'd been friends for a long time from the way you all act."

Gilbert nodded. "Well that's kind of true. It's actually a kind of odd story about how we all met up really." He laughed a bit at this. "Remind me to tell you sometime."

Alfred smiled, he actually didn't mind Gilbert at all- in fact the more time he spent around Gilbert the more he found that he really wouldn't mind being his friend.

The two of them watched the television in silence for a while. After about half an hour Alfred caught movement from the corner of his eye. He leaned back and peered down the hallway until he could see what had caught his attention. He quickly withdrew when he spotted Arthur leaning against a door, talking to Antonio.

Unfourtunately for Alfred, Gilbert caught the motion.

"You really shouldn't be that tough on him." He said seriously, causing Alfred to jump.

"What do you mean?" He asked, slightly embarrassed that Gilbert had seen his flinch.

"Well..." Gilbert trailed off, looking at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Yeah he's kind of a jerk sometimes, but he's not a bad guy. I really think you should give him a chance-"

"I'm straight remember." Alfred cut in, and was confused by Gilbert's sudden evil grin.

"I never said anything about that. I just said you shouldn't be so tough on the guy, yeah?" He said with a wink.

Alfred felt the blood rush to his cheeks. Why had he immediately assumed Gilbert was talking about his relationship to Arthur like that?He looked away and crossed his arms acrossed his chest, trying (and failing) to hide his embarrassement.

Gilbert laughed loudly. "I'm just pulling your leg!" He teased, ignoring the temptation to poke at the American's 'straightness' again. "But really he-"

"He's a jerk." Alfred interrupted.

Gilbert gave a sigh and rubbed the back of his head. "Look, Arthur's my friend. He's _not _bad. He's just kind of an attention snob. He can't stand it when people ignore him or he's made... unimportant. He causes scenes and he may act like a total ass sometimes, but he's not- really."

He pursed his lips when Alfred didn't respond. "Trust me, just give the guy a break okay?"

Alfred glared at this. Give _him _a break? Why should he give Arthur a break when he could hardly get one himself? Still...

"Fine, if you'll shut up about it." Alfred finally responded. He almost recoiled at Gilbert's sudden over-exaggerated wink and snickering. "Stop it!"

"Still didn't say anything dude." Gilbert continued to laugh. Alfred was resisiting the urge to strangle him when he caught movement from the corner of his eye.

"Gilbert." A voice suddenly said behind them. Alfred jumped and spun to face a smiling Spanard. "Did you look up your room? You're rooming with Lud in the room next to mine." Antonio shot a friendly smile at Alfred before turning back to Gilbert.

"Who you bunking with?" Gilbert asked as Alfred slowly turned back to the T.V.

"Some guy named Tim." Antonio said, tilting his head slightly. "I've no idea who he is though. It's no fair I get stuck with a stranger."

Gilbert nodded thoughtfully. He slowly stood up as he streched, locking his hands and pushing them out in front of him. "Well I better get my stuff down there then, or else Luddy is gonna get super mad. He's all about organization and stuff."

Alfred watched as Gilbert and Antonio left, leaving him alone on the couch again. He turned back to the television, mind wandering, not quite absorbing any of the show anymore.

* * *

><p>"Alfred." A voice called, tapping on Alfred's shoulder. He jolted awake from the doze he had fallen into. He turned to see Kiku giving him a look, mouth slightly curled up at one end. "Why are you sleeping on the couch- It's dinner."<p>

Kiku laughed as Alfred's stomach suddenly rumbled, as if it had heard Kiku's comment. Alfred grinned widely and jumped up. "Oh wow thanks for waking me up!" He cried. "Imagine if I slept through and woke up in the middle of the night! That wouldn't have been cool at all."

Kiku and Alfred began walking out of the commons together. "Is it okay if we meet up with Elizabeta and Francis?" Kiku asked, looking over at Alfred. "They said they wanted to go out to the city to eat."

Alfred nodded, going out with his group of friends to the city was something they did normally. It wasn't a big deal, the only problem was the enevitable battle over who would pay the bill at the end. It usally ended up being Kiku or Toris, they were the ones most likely to give in just to stop the bickering of Alfred, Elizabeta, and Francis. Speaking of which...

"No Toris?" He asked.

Kiku shook his head. "He said he needed to finish up his work for a project. Apparently his group passed off all the work to him." Alfred gave a wince for him. Poor Toris, he was always getting saddled with the short end of the stick because of his passive nature.

Kiku and Alfred walked out to the front of the university where they met up with Francis- apparently Elizabeta was already out at the resturant.

"Anything interesting happen today?" Asked Francis, looking at Alfred. "You didn't show up for lunch."

"Oh." Alfred said, remembering that he'd ditched eating lunch with his friends to lounge about in the commons room after his run-in with Arthur. "Sorry about that. I didn't feel too good."

Francis raised an eyebrow. "But you're feeling better now right?" He asked. Alfred had been chattering like his usual self while they walked until Francis had brought that question up. Suddenly Alfred clammed up a bit.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Alfred replied with the nervous grin that was becoming a cursed reoccurence lately. "It's nothing, really."

Francis nodded, unconvinced, and shared a look with Kiku, who shrugged.

They arrived at the Chinese resturaunt that they visited frequently. Elizabeta already sat at a booth eating noodles with a pair of chopsticks. Her hair was pulled back into a tight pony-tail, usual flower left out and laying on her nightstand at home. She grinned and waved as her friends entered. Alfred walked up to the counter to order for both him and his friends.

The short Chinese man behind the counter waved to Alfred as he walked over. "What would you like?" He asked, leaning an arm on the granite countertop.

Alfred glanced down at the menu in front of him before raddling off a list of foods. The man nodded, jotting down all of them. Alfred and his friends came here so often that none of it was a suprise.

The man rushed off to the kitchen to prepare the food and Alfred walked over to his friends who were talking softly. They smiled as he took a seat next to Kiku and across from Elizabeta in the four-seated booth.

They talked about school until the food came out. Elizabeta and Francis talked animately about many of the new students while Alfred and Kiku added in occasionally. Francis went on and on about some new girl he'd met, electing only heavy sighs and eye-rolls from his friends. When he finally noticed none of them were paying attention, he himself gave a heavy sigh and grudgingly passed the conversation over.

Elizabeta began talking about the many people she'd met. She smiled slightly, talking about a nice blonde girl who'd asked to be her friend- apparently she'd snuck away from hanging out with her older brother when she ran into Elizabeta, and jokingly asked if she wanted to hide with her.

A few more minutes passed when the conversation took a turn for the worse. Eventually, the list of the students they were dicussing reached Gilbert. Alfred, not quite paying attention, added in a few good words for him when Elizabeta brought him up. This was apparently a mistake, because Elizabeta perked up.

"Oh that's right!" She exclaimed, turning to Alfred. "He was in my Statistics class!" She watched as Alfred nodded, disintrested.

"He said something about you." She said slowly. Alfred's eyes suddenly shot up from behind his glasses and he looked at Elizabeta. His three friends were suprised by Alfred's sudden attention.

"Yeah?" He asked. _I swear if he did what I think he did I don't care if he's a nice guy I will personally skin him and hang him on a wall. If he-_

"Yeah, he said you were, 'hopeless' and said if I wanted to know why I'd have to ask you myself," she replied, staring at Alfred. He could feel the stares of his other two friends as well. He shifted uncomfortably, not giving any response other than a noncommital mumble. _Okay, he can live, at least he didn't say-_

"Who's Arthur?" She finally asked.

Alfred just stared at her for a second, thoughts forgotten. _Nope. He's dying._

"Nobody." Alfred said a bit too quickly after a pause that was just slightly too long. Elizabeta looked over at Kiku and Francis.

"Nobody?" Francis asked, leaning slightly across the table. "You sure?"

"Positive." Alfred responded, stiffening. _Why did Gilbert... GAH._

His friends remained silent for a minute, exchanging glances. They were stunned, Alfred _never _acted like this. He was always either happy and cheery or, when the situation called for it, fierce and offensive. He almost never acted as defensively as he did now. In fact, the only time Kiku could remember was...

"Does this have something to do with your date with Mei?" Kiku, the ever observant man, easily connected the dots. Alfred shot him a horrified glance. It was only a moment of weakness before he got his expression under control, but it was enough. Elizabeta and Francis' eyes lit up with predatory gleams.

"Why _were _you acting so odd yesterday?" Francis asked, smiling evilly.

"And stormed off at lunch." Elizabeta added helpfully. (Well unhelpfully to Alfred.)

"Mei never did tell me what happened..." Kiku trailed off, shooting Alfred a look out of the corner of his eye.

Alfred went from staring at Elizabeta to staring intently at his food. It was all he could do to stop a blush from crawling up his face. He _did _stop it though, thank goodness. If his friends had seen him blush he would have _died._

"_Alfred._" Francis practically sang, enjoying the other man's discomfort far too much. "Is there something you want to tell us?" Elizabeta restrained herself from clapping her hands in anticipation- whatever had Alfred so flustered must be juicy gossip. Elizabeta had a bit of an obsession with gossip.

"No." Alfred said, voice steady. "Drop it." However, Alfred's friends weren't 'dropping it' that easily. Kiku held up a hand to stop Francis and Elizabeta before they said something stupid to make Alfred run out on them.

"Alfred..." He began softly. "Is something wrong? We only want to help you, after all we are your friends and you can tell us anything." Kiku wanted to know what was going on just as much as Francis and Elizabeta, but he knew pushing Alfred over the edge was not the best way to deal with the situation. If Alfred didn't tell them... well in all honesty if Alfred didn't tell them they'd come up with some hairbrained plan to find out- but Kiku would make sure to give Alfred his room first.

"No. I'm _fine._" Alfred replied calmly, if a bit strained. Kiku nodded and backed off.

Unfourtunately Elizabeta and Francis were not Kiku.

"Hey Francis." Elizabeta staged whispered. "You know who this Arthur guy is?"

"I don't know Elizabeta," Francis dramatically whispered back, loud enough for Alfred to hear. "But he must go to our university right? I bet we could hunt him down. Maybe _he _can shed some light on this situation, _oui?_"

"What!" Alfred exclaimed, jolting up and staring agast at his two friends. He immediately regretted his action and shrank back in on himself, but his friends wouldn't allow it.

"Why not?" Elizabeta asked, leaning over the table towards Alfred. This only caused Alfred to lean back furthur and try to find out if he could somehow dissapear into his aviator jacket.

"No reason." Alfred didn't know how Arthur would act if his friends questioned him, but he certainly didn't want to find out. He would probably rub it in and tell them all about how Alfred apparently malfunctioned when Arthur had kissed him. Alfred would _never _be able to live it down. Especially since he kept telling everyone he was straight- because he _was _straight.

Alfred's composure finally broke and his cheeks grew pink.

"_Mon Dieu!_" Francis clapped his hands. "He's blushing!"

Alfred said nothing, keeping by his new vow of silence and trying his best to force the faint heat in his cheeks away. He switched from picking at his food and began eating his food in earnest then, deciding to ignore any further questions from his friends.

"Oh Alfred _please._" Came Elizabeta's voice first. "You're _killing _me."

"Yes, Alfred." Francis chimed in soon after. "We don't keep secrets from you now do we?"

Alfred simply remained silent and ate his food. As Francis and Elizabeta pelted him with more questions, he shot a pleading glance at Kiku- the man who had alleaviated in his questioning. Maybe Kiku could help him.

Kiku pursed his lips. He had been having an internal debate on whether or not to join in on the interrogation again. Sure, he wanted to know what was going on almost as much, if not more, than the other two, but Alfred was his friend. He didn't want to hurt Alfred in any way, and from the absolutely desperate look Alfred shot him, he concluded that maybe joining in wouldn't be the nicest option.

"Stop." Kiku finally cut in, causing Liz and Francis to pause in their tirades. "He doesn't want to talk about it." It was all Alfred could do not to hug Kiku right then. Alfred sighed in relief as Elizabeta and Francis both pouted and settled back down in their seats- giving up for the moment.

"Fine," Elizabeta sniffed. "But you better not be having any affairs without telling me."

Alfred nearly choked. He pounded on his chest as he coughed violently. After a moment of panic, he finally grabbed a cup of water (Elizabeta's to be exact) and downed it, washing down the noodles that had gotten stuck in his throat.

"Wh- what the hell Liz?" He gasped finally, struggling to catch his breath after the coughing fit.

Nobody spoke. Kiku, Alfred's new hero, broke the awkward silence after a few moments by begining to talk about his new art project. Alfred turned to strare down at his food again, refusing to agknowlege the rest of the world. After another few minutes Alfred stood up and went off to pay, as by that point they had all finished.

The three people left at the table huddled quickly.

"So we're agreed? We're finding 'Arthur' as soon as we get back on campus?" Elizabeta asked, practically overflowing with joy at what must be some amazing gossip.

She recieved nodds from Francis and Kiku before they broke quickly, right before Alfred returned. They were a bit too slow however, and Alfred caught the huddle they had formed when he was gone out of the corner of his eye. He felt a sick feeling settling in the pit of his stomach as they stood up and the four of them started heading home.

Where was Toris to talk some sense into them when he needed him? Three against one just wasn't fair.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading. <strong>

**(Lol, deal with it Alfred your friends are totally evil- there is no escape.)**

**I'm sorry that the confrontation between Al and Arthur is so anti-climatic. But Alfred's still a bit touchy right now. XD I'm just really tired lately, so I'm sorry if this chapter's a bit rushed or anything. Once I settle into my new classes than I'll get better, hopefully.**

**Thank you so much for all your opinions in the last chapter! A lot of you said you wanted PruCan, but- Mattie's not even in the story yet and I was planning on going with PruHun/Frying Pangle. I'm sorry ;_; Also the whole USUK vs. UKUS ended pretty much dead even. x3x**

**I actually wrote two different scenes and then cut them out. I wrote down Gilbert and the gang's story, but then took it out because it was like... super depressing to just randomly stick in the middle of there. (Yeah... go me.) You guys don't mind slightly tragic backstories do you? (/sure hopes not)**

**Thank you again for all the follows, favorites, and reviews- I love every one of them. / **


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh my, I updated. What has this world come to? XD Life is busy. :I**

**I hope the length of this chapter makes up for it. (It'snotlikeanythingimportanthappensthough/coughs)**

**I hope you like it~**

* * *

><p><strong>Clarification- When mentioned, Andrei is Romania and Alek is Bulgaria.<strong>

* * *

><p>Ditching Elizabeta and Francis had actually been surprisingly easy.<p>

Alfred had waved as Elizabeta had turned away from the group of men at the gate, muttering to herself under her breath.

Francis had split farther into the halls, heading off to a different wing of dorms.

Kiku had remained silent as the two of them walked down to their shared room. He was absorbed in thought, which was nothing new. The man seemed to always be silently contemplating things. He almost deemed it his job to _just _think sometimes.

Alfred scuffed his feet on the floor, causing Kiku to wince slightly. Otherwise, they walked in companionable silence. The two of them reached the door to their room, Kiku leading slightly. He grasped the doorknob and opened.

"Alfred?" He blocked the doorway with his body, preventing entry. The other man had to stop short before running into him.

"Yeah?" Alfred blinked at the smaller man.

"...nevermind," Kiku sighed as he stepped in and out of the door. He rubbed at his eyes and walked across the room, carefully stepping over a few piles of their assorted junk.

Alfred followed in and immediately flung himself onto his bed. He stared up at the ceiling as Kiku rummaged around.

His gaze began to haze over.

"Hey Kiku," Alfred began, causing the other man to pause.

"Yes?" He turned to look at his friend lying on the opposite side of the room.

"...nevermind," Alfred said as he puffed out his cheeks and turned away. Kiku raised an eyebrow, chuckling slightly.

"_What?_" Alfred asked, shooting Kiku a glare over is shoulder.

"Nothing," Kiku said, still stifling down laughter. "I'm just glad we're friends."

"Weird," Alfred murmured as Kiku left the room to change.

* * *

><p>In the morning, Francis had somehow wrangled Kiku and Toris into listening to his rantings.<p>

Kiku had left Alfred, deciding to take pity on him. However, unlike Alfred, Kiku had morning classes, and had met up with Francis and Toris on his way to art.

He waved his arms, talking with his hands, as they walked down the hall. He walked backwards, so he could still face his two friends. A smile graced his face as he went on and on about some girl. Apparently she was one of the new students.

"You're going to run into someone," Kiku observed. The man was already swaying precariously as he took one step after the other backwards.

Francis waved his hand dismissively. "There's nobody even down here anyway."

It was true, the halls remained fairly empty. It was still relatively early, and many students were still asleep- refusing to wake up until the last moment. Alfred had been one of those students this morning, and had waved Kiku out the door, promising to catch up later.

"But anyway-" Francis grinned widely. "I'll just _have _to introduce you to her. She is simply amazing."

Toris sighed, holding his books to his chest. "That sounds nice Francis," he said unenthusiastically.

"Aww, don't worry Toris- I'm sure you'll find someone special." The statement was said with complete innocence, but coming from Francis, it felt more like a jab at his relationship status. Toris made a face.

"Well I'm not sure," Toris grimaced. "I mean Natalia practically hates me."

Kiku and Francis exchanged glances. It was an unspoken understanding between the group of friends- all their friends, Elizabeta and Alfred included- that playing matchmaker for each other was common and expected. It was so common in fact, that most of the time the target of the teasings, whoever it might be, would simply sigh and shrug off their friends.

"Maybe Natalia isn't really meant for you then..." Francis drawled.

"Yes, besides- she has a thing for Ivan... poor man," Kiku chimed in.

"Hey, don't talk about her like that," Toris jumped to defend the woman. "Besides, she's nice."

Francis, who was still walking backward, gave him a pointed look. "I think Feliks would disagree."

Toris blinked owlishly. "Why would Feliks care?"

Kiku internally face-palmed while Francis externally sighed. "No reason Toris," Kiku said, giving the brunette a pat on the back. It was common knowledge that Feliks despised Natalia.

"Huh? But I don't-"

"Anyway-" Francis cut back in. "So this girl-"

Kiku sighed, phasing out as Francis continued on. They walked down the hall, and it wasn't until they reached a turn that Kiku's mind returned to the one-sided conversation Francis was having with them. They reached a bend in the hall, and Francis absently turned, _still _walking backwards.

"And her eyes are the most wonderfu- oof." Francis stumbled forward, nearly running into Kiku.

"What did I tell you?" Kiku asked as he held a hand forward, preventing Francis from falling. He quickly retracted the arm when it was obvious Francis had his balance again- Kiku had a thing with physical contact.

Francis rubbed at his arm and turned to face down the hallway.

"I'm sorry," he said to the man he had run into. "I-" he stopped.

Something about the look the blonde man was giving him rubbed him the wrong way. The man had crossed his arms and looked at him with this oh so condescending look.

When it was obvious that Francis wasn't continuing, the man glared and began to brush past the group. "It's fine," was his only response.

"Well _excusez-moi!_" Francis hissed. "No need to apologize or anything."

The man stopped, halfway past Francis and his friends. He turned.

"_Excuse me?_" He asked. "It's not like _I _was walking down the hallway perfectly normally or anything. Maybe you should watch where you're going."

Francis gaped at the fake, patronizing smile that graced the other man's face. "Well _you _were the one who could see." He snorted, crossing his own arms.

If Francis only knew that just by simply walking down the hallway he'd run into the same man that he and his friends had been so painstakingly planning to hunt down, he would have thrown a fit.

Arthur rolled his eyes. "It was a corner, git- I couldn't see around it. I was simply turning a corner when I run into some... frog."

"_Frog?_" Francis asked. "Why, what's wrong with France?"

"Everything," Arthur huffed. "Now if you don't mind-"

"France is an amazing country!" Francis interrupted. "Much better than anything English." It hadn't been hard to pick up on the man's obvious English accent- his vocabulary had tipped off too his origin too... not that the obvious Union Jack on his person was subtle at all either.

Francis decided to ignore the fact that they were, right now, in America- and not any sort of French country.

"Are you really-?" Arthur sighed and rolled his eyes. "Sure- whatever helps you live with yourself."

Francis scoffed. "At least when I visit France, I can eat edible food. I've been to England and-" he shivered.

This elicited an interesting reaction from the Englishman. He bristled- and it was at this point that Kiku made the connection between the scene unfolding in front of him, and cats fighting.

"My country's cooking is just _fine _thank you very much." The man's violent reaction made Francis smirk.

"'_Whatever 'elps you live with yourself,'_" Francis mimicked.

While Arthur resembled a hissing cat now, Francis seemed to be a preening one.

"Oh you little-" Arthur marched up to Francis and the two began bickering in earnest now.

Like before, Kiku zoned out- not quite paying attention to the words of the fight.

After all, he was far too busy comparing them to cats now anyway.

"Uhm- should we uh- do... something?" Toris asked, snapping Kiku out of his daydreams of Scottish Folds and Long-haired cats.

Kiku sighed. "Maybe?"

After another good minute of meaningless bickering, the English man finally caught sight of the other two men out of the corner of his eye.

"-and another thing! Hey, are you even listening to me?" Francis fumed, noticing that the other man had turned his attention away.

It almost seemed like something clicked in the man's head as he took in the trio.

"Ooh," he said.

"What?" Francis glared, but Arthur waved his hand dismissively.

"Nevermind then. Sorry... _frog._" Francis stared aghast as the man turned and began to walk away.

"Hey- what?" The man didn't even pause as he turned the corner that had caused the whole incident and left sight.

"That was interesting," Kiku observed. "I wonder who he was."

* * *

><p>Stupid Economics.<p>

And stupid Calculus, and stupid American History.

Alfred had bumped into Gilbert when he finally woke up and got ready for class. The man had slept in equally late, and the pair had sort of teamed up in their early morning antics. Alfred had tossed Gilbert a protein bar when the German called from down the hall and Gilbert reminded Alfred to grab his books when he nearly walked off without them, still in a half-asleep state.

"Ugh," Gilbert had moaned. "I hate mornings."

"It's like-" Alfred yawned, interrupting his own thoughts, "-uh, 10. That's not really 'morning.'"

"Yeah, yeah," Gilbert muttered. "Lud tried to wake me up at sixish, but who would wake up that early?"

"Kiku," Alfred said. "I'm just glad he didn't make me get up today."

Gilbert laughed. "Hey, maybe we can trade. Your friend- the Japanese one?- sounds like he'd get along well with my stick-in-the-mud brother. He'd have to deal with Feli though."

"Wouldn't that be a trio?" Alfred laughed. "I think Kiku might die if he had to deal with any more than one stranger at once though."

The pair walked in silence until Alfred finally spoke up again.

"So what is your schedule? We don't have Economics today, where are you going?"

Truthfully, yesterday had been a day light of classes for Alfred. Just Computer Programing and Economics. This day held more classes, if mostly afternoon ones, and Alfred wasn't all that excited for them.

Well, it was Wednesday now- at least the week was half done.

"Oh, uh, give me a sec." Gilbert dug into his pockets fruitlessly before digging through his bag. Alfred paused in walking to allow Gilbert to rifle through his person.

"Aha!" The man pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and held it into the air in triumph. He tossed the thing at Alfred's head, which he caught without any problem.

He tried to straighten the paper against his leg before they started walking again. He stared at it, trying to work out the scribbled words all over the paper.

"What even...?" Gilbert laughed at Alfred's apparent confusion.

"That's my master list," he said. "I'm like a mama bird."

Alfred turned his stare onto Gilbert. "...you need help don't you?"

"Ha!" Gilbert burst out. "Noo, I just gotta keep track of my baby chicks y'know. Can't leave them alone. Just look- it's color coded."

Taking a closer look, Alfred was able to puzzle out what the different words said. There were numerous names jotted down on the paper, all written in different colors. All the rest of the page was written in the same colors. Alfred finally read through the scribbled words- they were all classes.

They were all _Alfred's _classes.

It wasn't as if he hadn't known this already, Gilbert had told him so after he had sort of stolen Alfred's phone number. Still.

Without even realizing it, his eyes drifted to the key on the corner of the page.

_Okay, so Gilbert's black... Ludwig's blue..._

His eyes trailed across the green words on the paper. Who knows where Gilbert found a green pen, but all the same...

Economics... Calculus... American History...

Alfred snapped his head up when he realized what he was doing.

Oh no- he was _not _memorizing Arthur's schedule. No way. He had just been curious about the rest of Gilbert's friends was all.

Then it struck him- those were all his classes too.

He shoved the paper back at Gilbert, getting a look. The man took the paper and folded it up, not that it mattered. As soon as it was shoved back into his bag it was sure to get crumpled again.

"So you've got Calc next?" He asked, looking over at Gilbert.

"Naw, I've got Lit- then Calc."

"Oh." Alfred wasn't about to admit that he hadn't actually been paying all that much attention to _Gilbert's_ schedule- despite that being what he had asked about.

"Yeah. What 'bout you?"

"Calc. But I promised to meet up with Liz before..." Suddenly his eyes pierced Gilbert with a glare. "Oh _yeah. _About Liz."

Gilbert grinned, which was apparently his reaction to everything. "Oh, her? Yeah we had Stats together. She seems really nice, in a 'I'm going to kill you' kind of way. What else about her?"

"Uh-huh." Alfred crossed his arms.

Gilbert blinked innocently. "Whaat?" He batted his eyelashes.

"You are such a tool," Alfred muttered before turning away.

"Aww c'mon Al," Gilbert said in a sing-song voice. "I can't apologize until you tell me what's wrong."

"I hate you."

"Why? Is it something I said?" His 'innocent' smile was starting to break though as he did his best not to laugh.

"Seriously!" Alfred spun to face Gilbert. "What is it with you Europeans and screwing with me!? Can't you just be normal?"

"Us Europeans?" Gilbert asked, snickering slightly. "Are my friends... _screwing_ with you?" At this point Gilbert couldn't help it anymore, he started laughing.

"_Gilbert!_"

"Okay, I'm sorry! But dude- it's not a big deal. I was just talking to her."

"About _me._" Alfred puffed out his cheeks into a pout.

"Sorry, I was just trying to get her to talk to me." Gilbert rolled his eyes, but this contradicted with the strained smile that was holding back his laughter. "She was totally ignoring me."

"Well now I'm going to die. Are you happy? I'm going to die and it will be all your fault. You better come to my funeral. You better cry too, or else I'll be super pissed, 'kay?"

"What in the world are you talking about?" Gilbert asked. He and Alfred now stood at the intersection of a hallway- Alfred needed to turn right while Gilbert would continue straight.

"You don't know my friends," Alfred sighed, "They'll kill me in some attempt to... I don't know-"

"Then just tell them." Gilbert shrugged. "Then they won't have an opportunity to kill you."

Alfred looked at Gilbert like he had just grown another head. "Oh hell no. Then they'll definitely kill me. Liz will gut me alive while Francis and Kiku watch... Toris will probably just look the other way, tell the police he didn't see anything."

"Why?"

Alfred rolled his eyes. "You don't understand. Besides- It's _not _a big deal. They'll just make it one."

"Whatever you say," Gilbert chuckled. "I'll see you in Calc then?"

"Sure," Alfred muttered as he watched Gilbert walk away.

Alfred turned his corner and walked down to the library. He peaked in the door and searched the room in one glance. Walking in, he shot Elizabeta a smile.

"Hey Liz," he said tiredly, before sitting down. He had been hesitant to show up when Elizabeta had texted him that morning, but he was determined to not let this business mess with his life. He usually met up with some friend or another in the mornings, and hell if he was going to let anything mess with his social life.

"Hey Al," she said, tapping her fingers on the desk in front of her. "What's up?"

"Not much," he said, rubbing at his eyes.

"Nothing interesting going on?"

"...no." Alfred looked up. He almost flinched at the predatory look in her eyes.

"You sure?"

"Seriously Liz? Don't you have work to do?" Alfred looked down at the book laid open in front of her. "Like... really?"

Elizabeta puffed out her cheeks in something similar to Alfred's usual pouts. "But Al, work is boring. It's not due until Monday anyway."

"...for Euro class?"

"Yup. I _wanted _Toris to be in my group- but he got paired up with some others. Francis too. And now I'm stuck with stupid Andrei and Alek! I hate those guys..." She pouted. "You think with all the new students I could actually be in a group with someone _normal._"

"What made you think the new students are normal?" Alfred asked bitterly. The words left his mouth before he could truly think them through, and they brought Elizabeta's attention up from her book.

"Why? Do you not like them? I thought you said you were friends with what's-his-name. Gilbert." Her pout turned into a evil smile.

"He's okay. But he'd crazy." Alfred was done with being flustered at this point, his voice remained neutral, unprovoked. He was tired, and honestly- if Liz found out and killed him, at least he could rest in piece.

"Crazy?" She asked.

"Yup."

"That's all?"

"Uh-huh."

"Hmm."

Alfred leaned over and helped Elizabeta with her work. She was fuming over the fact that she had to do a project on Eastern Europe, something she said she found highly distasteful. The fact she had been paired with her self proclaimed arch-nemesis and his best friend only made her angrier.

Alfred spent most of the hour listening to her complain rather than helping her, but he didn't care. It was nice to know other people had problems too.

* * *

><p>Walking into Calculus was one of the most painful things Alfred had done in a long time. At least with Economics he hadn't had to worry about his friends. But <em>no. <em>

There was Francis, and Kiku, and Toris. All sitting at their usual spot.

_And then _there was Gilbert, and Antonio, and _Arthur _on the opposite side of the room.

Alfred walked over to his friends, ignoring the other trio in the room.

"Hey," Alfred said. He wasn't sure whether he was unbelievably lucky, or extremely unlucky. The room was arranged in tables, and the only seat left at their table of four was the one facing out. While Francis and Kiku were facing the wall, Toris, and now Alfred, were forced to look at the rest of the room.

This meant that neither Francis or Kiku could see any of the other students.

But it also meant Alfred _had to _see them. Though he tried his best not to.

"_Bonjour, mon ami_," Francis said, eyes drifting up from his paper. "Now, since we came here- can we go now?"

"Unfortunately no," Toris said, smiling. "It's kind of a requirement."

"It's stupid," Alfred agreed.

The group began working on problems from their books. Francis talked for the four of them- and while Alfred would usually join in, his thoughts were otherwise occupied.

Gilbert had waved from the other side of the room, making several undecipherable hand gestures. Alfred crinkled his face in concentration at Gilbert's apparent attempt at communication.

Francis noticed, and turned to look over his shoulder. He saw Gilbert's- what was that, a seizure?- hand motions too. He then looked back at Alfred, who was unaware of the observing French man.

Kiku and Toris soon followed, all looking at the scene and an oblivious Alfred. The whole moment lasted only a few seconds.

Alfred gave up and looked back down at his paper.

"Hey, isn't that the guy you talked to before?" Toris asked.

Alfred looked over at the man in confusion before what he said clicked. Certainly Toris didn't _mean _to join in on his friends teasing, but he did so almost by accident more than you'd expect.

"Huh?"

"The white-haired guy," Francis supplied. "Gilbert?"

"Oh- yeah." Alfred was still to tired to get flustered, so he just looked down at his paper instead. The numbers really didn't make much sense anymore.

"I don't approve of the company he keeps," Francis said, causing Alfred to look up again.

"Why?"

"We bumped into that blonde man earlier," Francis supplied, "and he seemed very rude."

_Oh _shit._ When had that happened._

"Yeah," Alfred said. "I- uh- I haven't really met his friends." It was a lie, but hopefully they wouldn't catch it.

Luckily, even though it was noon, Calculus had dulled all of their senses. Francis and even the ever-observant Kiku didn't seem to notice his lie.

"I hope you realize you and Kiku are going to do most of this Toris," Francis said.

"Yeah, that's okay," Toris let out a half-laugh. "At least you help. This project in Euro is killing me. Not only am I doing all the work for Ravis- I have to deal with Ivan hanging over my shoulder the whole time."

"I can always help you," Francis said, sighing. "You got assigned with the Baltics right? Part of my project overlaps with that, we could help- Angelique and I."

"Yeah, thanks..." The conversation trailed off as Toris and Kiku went to work. Francis began drawing what looked like the outline of a face on his paper, and Alfred zoned out.

After a good ten minutes, his gaze trailed from his blank piece of paper to the rest of the room. A couple of Alfred's friends (he did have quite a lot, just none as close as his usual group) sat at another table, along with a mix of students Alfred didn't know. Matthias was apparently messing with a group of three new students as Berwald actually worked.

Eventually, his unfocused gaze traveled across the room to where Gilbert and his friends sat.

Gilbert and Antonio were creating various folded creations out of folded paper, obviously not actually trying to work. Gilbert laughed loudly, rivaling Matthias for volume, and Antonio was apparently trying his best not to throw one of his carefully crafted, tiny airplanes at the other man's head.

And then there was Arthur, the only one actually doing work, glaring down at his paper as if he could incinerate it with just a stare. Their table was perpendicular to the wall, as apposed to Alfred's which was parallel. He was in the edge seat, farthest away from the wall, and facing the front of the classroom.

His pencil scribbled furiously at the paper, and Alfred wondered why he didn't seem to notice the noise his friends were creating.

Alfred was unaware of the fact he was kind of staring at this point. Luckily, no one noticed.

Arthur's left elbow was propped up on the table, and his fingers were threaded through the left side of his messy blonde hair. He rested his cheekbone on said palm.

Once Alfred was done ogling his face, he took in the rest of the man's outfit. His brain was still unfocused, and said unfocused mind had no problem staring. If Alfred had realized what he was doing, he probably would have blushed.

A bandana hung from Arthur's neck in what reminded Alfred of old-school bandits from those Old West movies. Of course, the bandana hung down around his collar instead of up around his face, but all the same. It was almost not even ironic anymore that the piece of cloth was, in fact, decorated with the Union Jack.

Seriously, what was with that guy and the Union Jack? Was that even patriotic? Or just sort of conceited? Of course, Alfred ignored the fact he was wearing an American bomber jacket over his red, white, and blue tie-dyed shirt.

Arthur wore a T-shirt with the name of some band Alfred didn't recognize. All he knew was it was black, and clung to the man's skin...

Similar to the torn, dark gray skinny jeans he wore.

_Damn._

Alfred's head jerked away as his consciousness finally returned to him. It probably would have happened faster if his mind hadn't been clogged with Calc. While before he had remained fairly neutral to whatever words got sent his way, he became overly self-conscious now.

His cheeks grew ever so slightly pink as he directed his gaze _at the paper. _

_Stay on the numbers dammit._

Alfred's luck only went so far though. While no one had noticed Alfred staring at Arthur, Francis had seen him flinch.

"You falling asleep Alfred?" he asked, misreading the motion.

"Huh?" Alfred looked up at Francis. "What ar- oh. Yeah."

"You okay?" Toris asked.

"Yup, I just didn't-"

"Don't say you didn't sleep well. I know for a fact you fell asleep at ten last night, and I assume you slept until Elizabeta made you get up." Kiku rolled his eyes as he wrote out a few more numbers and symbols on his paper.

"...ouch," Francis chuckled. "Did Kiku get up on the wrong side of the bed, hmm?"

"You don't have to deal with the people in my Art class," Kiku said quietly. It was that tone, while seemingly calm and pleasant, that his friends tried to avoid at all cost- it was Kiku's 'I'm going to hurt you' voice. Alfred was on the receiving end of a less serious version of said voice often, but this was full-fledged.

"Okay, we'll not talk about it then," Toris interrupted quickly. "No problem."

"You're such a push-over Toris," Francis said, easily distracted and poking at the man. "Seriously."

"Am not!"

Francis and Toris began to argue while Kiku sighed. (Francis supplied many good arguments, but eventually clammed up when Toris threatened to never help him with his work ever again.)

"Fine, fine. Sorry," Francis sighed and peeked over at Toris' paper. Luckily, they were supposed to be working in teams.

"It's okay," he said this calmly, but inside he was bemoaning the fact that, since he was helping Francis right now, he sort of proved Francis' point right then and there.

"Oh, by the way, are you going out on Friday? I know you have that project..." Francis his best to not anger Toris further, and switched topics.

"No," he sighed. "I wish I could, but not only do I have that project with Ivan and Ravis, I also have to help Natalia with her work- and then Feliks and I are supposed to study together for the rest of the night... he'll fail if I don't help him."

Francis was obviously resisting the urge to say this proved his original point, shown by his strained, _almost _smug smile. "You need to lay off on the work sometimes."

"But Ravis and Ivan won't do the work, and Feliks'll fail if I don't help." Toris tapped the end of his pencil on his desk, thinking. "Plus I get to spend time with Natalia," he finished as he smiled dreamily.

"I thought we already proved she was crazy? She tried to choke Alfred." Francis raised an eyebrow.

"She's nice. I get to spend time with her and help her study for a while. _It's_ nice." Toris pouted, indignant.

"...even though you're spending the whole night studying with Feliks too?" Francis smiled to himself, while Kiku tried his best not to.

"What is it with you and Feliks today? I don't get it."

"Nothing," Alfred cut in for his friend. While apparently none of them had any respect for _his_ private life, recent events had caused him to give such things more thought.

This interruption brought Francis' attention to Alfred. "You're coming though? You're not ditching us for some date like last time we went out, right?"

"Of course not," Alfred said, pouting. It's not like he even had a date anymore. He'd texted Mei, and apologized for when he had left her, but hadn't asked her out again. She hadn't seemed all that surprised. In fact, Alfred had been almost surprised at how cool she had been when he said he wouldn't be able to go out with her again. He had wondered if he should have been be offended or not, but had eventually just categorized the whole thing easily into the 'friend-zoned' folder in his head.

"Good," Francis smiled.

"Wait- where are we going?" Maybe he should have asked that first before agreeing, that would have been the more intelligent thing to do.

"I found this amazing new bar last weekend- you know, when you ditched us? They have the most amazing wine there!" Francis waved his arms into the air. "Unfortunately, I couldn't drink more than one glass because I didn't want to force poor Toris and Liz to drag me home."

"Please tell me about how you can talk about getting drunk as if it is perfectly normal for a conversation." Toris said.

Meanwhile, Kiku had tuned out the rest of the world. Similarly, since he was no longer involved in the conversation, Alfred's mind drifted again.

"Because it is?" Francis looked genuinely confused. He turned his head to the man beside him. "Kiku?"

The mentioned man looked up and shook his head.

"Art," he said, in a monotone that was much more sinister than it seemed at first. "Work."

Francis pouted. "It's a good thing I have Alfred then, huh? I think I can convince Matthias to come too... maybe."

Alfred didn't even notice Francis' words. He was too busy staring at Gilbert's table again.

"Sounds fun- now if you don't mind, I can't for the life of me figure this out." Toris picked up his paper and shoved it at Francis. "You're smart too, figure it out. There's one question left."

"Alfred's the numbers guy," Francis muttered.

"Alfred's a bit preoccupied," Toris said. Alfred, hearing himself being mentioned, spun and gaped at Toris.

"What do you mean?" He asked, defensively. "I can do the work."

"Great!" Francis said, too happy about getting out of the work and shoving the paper at Alfred that he didn't quite pay attention to what Toris had said. Alfred frowned and picked up his pencil as he stared at the work.

"I can see the rest of the room too," Toris leaned over and whispered, "-and you're staring over there."

Alfred decided that the best course of action was to ignore the statement.

So much for Toris being on his side.

* * *

><p>The rest of the class passed by relatively quickly, since Alfred had numbers to distract himself with. When he finally looked up at the clock, class was nearly over.<p>

He passed the paper back to Toris, and the brunette quickly finished off the work Alfred had left blank.

"Great, thanks," Toris said. While Alfred had been doing the work, Kiku had pulled out a small sketchbook, Francis had been covertly texting someone under the table, and Toris had started scribbling random notes for other classes on a sheet of paper. All this left Alfred alone to do work actually for that class. He'd been a bit ticked, but had given up silently.

"No problem," Alfred said. "I know you're swamped- if you need help I'm here too." He felt bad for not offering help when Francis had.

"It's fine," Toris rubbed at the back of his head as the bell rang and the class slowly emptied. "Unless you can get Ivan off my back or convince Ravis to stop hiding every time someone speaks louder than a whisper, there's not much you can do."

"I don't know I-"

"I don't mind, really. And other than the project I'm just helping people I like when they need it..." Toris smiled fondly. "I don't care if it's stressing."

"Sure," Alfred watched as Francis dragged Kiku out of the room. He had a sudden fear for Francis' life expectancy from the look Kiku gave him. "I think you just like being stressed."

Toris laughed as the pair walked out. "I wouldn't say that. And you shouldn't be talking- remember that time you charged into my room at _midnight_ saying you forgot to do a project and needed my help, you even made me stay up all night."

"Hey- I- you're just the go-to help guy." Alfred shrugged.

"I know," he rolled his eyes. "I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah," he waved as they split- Alfred heading left and Toris heading right.

Now he had American history- wonderful.

And again, he was left walking in alone. He glanced around the room, relieved when he saw his row already somewhat occupied- so he wouldn't have to deal with sitting alone when anyone else walked in. Alfred walked over to the woman scribbling in her book.

"Hey Angelique," he said, sitting down.

The girl looked up. "Oh, hey Alfred." Her hair swung as she turned her head, twin pigtails swishing.

That was the thing about people. Put one person, alone, in a social situation, and things become much more terrifying. Pair them up with someone they know, and things are easy. Searching a room frantically for a friendly face or an empty chair are perhaps one of the most scary things that can happen on a typical, average, daily basis- but walk in with a friend and the rest of the room doesn't seem to matter.

While Alfred might not be really friends with Angelique, she was Elizabeta's roommate, which made them acquaintances. They talked occasionally, and shared notes sometimes for this very class. Since she was there, he wasn't alone.

Which made it, if only slightly, more bearable to wait for class to start as face after face entered the room. Specifically, when one certain face entered the room.

Oh that's right, Arthur was in this class too.

He whipped his head around back to Angelique, ignoring the look she gave him.

"You okay?" Why did everyone ask that? What was not okay about him right now? Why did people think he wasn't okay? It made no sense.

"Yup," Alfred sighed.

He was relieved that apparently today was a lecture day. Usually, he hated lectures in any class- but he loved American History. He was almost sickeningly patriotic about his country.

Alfred managed to pay attention the whole time. They were talking about the Civil War, and it was all very interesting for Alfred. He listened intently as they spoke about Gettysburg, and how the North made a dramatic come-back. Apart from the few times Angelique poked him to ask to clarify a point as she wrote notes, he was fully absorbed in the conversation- something that apparently wasn't happening for the rest of the students.

Many of them didn't even come from America, and didn't really care. One student in particular had no intentions about learning about America's Civil War.

No, when the lecture ended and Alfred looked around the room, one student was most definitely looking at something that was not the speaker.

Alfred looked away as soon as his gaze had locked with Arthur's.

Crap, had Arthur been staring at him the whole time? He glanced down at his clothes and wondered how he looked. He thought about how stupid he must of looked, held in rapture by some stupid monotonous lecturer.

Of course, that was when he remembered he 'didn't care', and shoved his books into his bag violently. He 'didn't care' one bit. He continued to 'not care' as he pulled his bag over his shoulder and started to travel towards the door.

"Hey Alfred," a, distinctly English, voice called as he began leaving the room. He paused.

To walk away or not to walk away... He turned and looked at the man walking up to him. He'd promised Gilbert to be nice, so...

"Thanks," Arthur said, walking up besides Alfred. "I've been meaning to talk to you."

"Really?" Alfred asked, trying his best not to sound utterly pissed. While later he might claim to be angry at Arthur, he was really just angry with himself and the odd ways he'd been acting lately.

"Yes I-" he was cut off by loud voices in the hallway. The two of them had been standing just inside the doorway, and at the noise Arthur looked out and around the door frame.

"Oh for- what the hell is wrong with them?" Arthur glared, and Alfred peered out around the door as well, prompted by the other man's reaction.

There, walking down the hall, were two familiar figures.

"I can't even- why-?" Arthur growled as the smaller man lunged at the larger in an apparent attempt to hit him. "Give them _two minutes _and- You know what?"

Alfred jolted as Arthur shifted his attention back to him suddenly, spinning. "Uhm, no?"

"I'll have to get back to you, I need to do something before Lovino gets both of them expelled... or kills Antonio." Alfred turned around again, watched as said Italian began causing a scene- in an actually occupied hallway this time.

Alfred was relieved, he wasn't exactly looking forward to any sort of conversation with Arthur. The man was beyond his comprehension, and no matter what Gilbert said, he was still pissed- especially at the way the man had spoken to him earlier... Not that he had the will to bring up said 'earlier' or continue _that_ line of discussion.

Arthur let out a sort of 'hmpf' as he watched the scene, wondering if he really needed to intervene. When Lovino started shouting curses, he decided he did.

Meanwhile, Alfred was cursing himself for bringing up that whole 'earlier discussion' in his mind. Now all he could think about was how in the hell could he have a normal conversation with this man. It was terribly awkward. While Arthur apparently had no problem with talking to him, Alfred wanted to bolt away to the nearest safe-haven every time the situation even seemed like he might have to talk to the other. How could Arthur talk to him so casually when their last, and technically only, conversation had not only been a fight, but one about- well about their _other _only interaction. One that still hovered in the corner of his mind, no matter how much he denied that.

Arthur sighed, finally beginning to move to stop the fight. He patted Alfred on the arm as he began to walk out, pausing as the American visibly jumped at the contact.

"Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and trying to hold back a chuckle as a smile pulled at his lips. "Well then, noted."

"What do you-" Alfred began, suddenly even angrier at the smug tone that had worked it's way into the British man's voice. However, Arthur had already walked out and was heading over to the fighting pair.

Alfred decided now would be the time to escape.

He certainly didn't stand there watching as Arthur began to yell at the pair- certainly didn't stare at all.

Alfred finally scurried away, quickly making his way to the dorms. He didn't have any other classes until late, and was determined to lock himself up in his room before he would be forced to interact with humanity anymore. Maybe he'd read some books, since the television was out.

Faint shouts of 'well then get over yourself' could be heard behind him- with a slightly fainter 'but come on Lovi, I _want_ to get it for you' as a reply.

Alfred sighed as he put distance between himself and the chaos. Even though the voices were now safely hidden behind a corner, Alfred could still vaguely hear them. He winced in sympathy as Lovino's voice could be heard, obviously lashing out at the poor Spaniard who had been his target of rage.

If he didn't have to deal with anyone or anything for an hour or two, he'd be happy.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading!<strong>

**So anyway, Alfred is oblivious as ever and his friends meet Arthur, even if they don't know it... I think that's the progress I made in 6,000 something words. Go me! XD Oh and Alfred got invited to a party thing. Uhh, Matthias made an appearance. So that's something too. Denmark...**

**(Oh is my LietPol showing? Gosh that's embarrassing. And the fact that Francis' mystery girl still doesn't have a name... Hahaha... That's awkward.)**

**Also, noting now- Gilbert is fiercely, super protective over his friends. You mess with his friends, he will not be happy. He'd probably be the worst in any situation when his friends were actually in trouble/danger. He may not seem like it, but he's really serious about his friends and anything that troubles them. (/omg'Mamabird'/dies) Gilbert, Al's right. No sane person would say that, you've been hanging around Gilbird too much.**

**And Arthur is a tease. Also noted...**

**Anyway- Thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews!~ I hope you enjoyed my writing, and please let me know what you think. :3**


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